Pics before bath time.

Drain Tubes Out

The removal of the tubes went very well. Actually the stomach pain tube already came out on its own this morning so that wasnt a problem. The two drain tubes came out easy and made Robbie cry but not much. Dr Reinisch put some novacain in before he took them out. We told Reinisch about the drainage coming from the cup area so he took off the cap and looked around and cleaned him a bit. Everything seemed fine so he only changed the dressing on the stitch line of where the membrane was taken. We got to take a peek at his new hair cut, which is a military shave. We talked a bit before we left and Reinisch again told us that he did not see any hair in the canal which is great news.

Since Robbies seemed to be in a good mood we headed for the first Target in sight. It was so nice seeing him happy and sitting there in the cart with a big bag of popcorn on one side and a large icee on the other. While I was doing my shopping theropy Robbie told me, "Mom, your so beautiful" and at that momment I knew my charming little guy was feeling good. :)

We will have some R & R for the next couple days here at aunt Chrissys in Huntington Beach and Tom and Trevor will leave for home this weekend. We will take Robbie back to Disneyland next week and do slow rides. Our dressing change is next Thursday and then we are off to LAX for Robbie and Briannas first plane ride to go home.

Sorry for Late Update

Robbie got done with surgery around 4ish yesterday. He woke from the anesthesia very disoriented and angry. The nurses ended up giving him something to knock him back out and sleep in hopes he would wake up a little better. Tom and I didn't care much about letting him sleep and waiting to leave since the traffic back to Huntington Beach would of been at rush hour.

Dr Reinisch said everything looked good and he didn't see any hair in the canal but there was lots of dead skin. Our hopes on that would be perhaps the hair was on the skin he removed and replaced. They shaved Robbie's whole head and the new membrane that he lifted and moved forward went good he said. I was surprised when we saw pictures and I seen how big the stitch line was on the head. It pretty much went from the bottom of the right side of the head all the way to the top of the head. We also got to see pics of the new ear which of course looked great. Robbie has 2 drain tubes (1 for ear, and 1 for membrane area) and 1 pain pump tube in the tummy. The pain tube is in a Sponge Bob bag and gives meds on a time system so we don't worry about it. Reinisch used a black Nike mesh cap to cover the cup and strapped the cup around the ear this time with some stitches to hold it in place. There is drainage coming from the bottom of the cup and is making quite the mess.

Last night Robbie ran a low grade temp all night and cried and moaned every half hour. He is complaining a lot of pain so we are using the pain meds and he refuses to walk anywhere and has his chauffeur (daddy) carry him where he needs to go which is pretty much to the potty or bed/couch in front of the tv. His face was really swollen and seems to be going down today. I fed him oatmeal, dry cereal, choc milk, and water and he is now crashed again. Tomorrow will be a journey back to Reinischs office to get all tubes removed. Its an appointment no one is looking forward to.

The Waiting Game

We should be close to the half way mark now. Everything is going good according to the o.r. nurse who keeps calling to update every couple hours. They have took the skin graphs from the tummy and we will have a pain pump for that and two drain tubes for the membrane and the medpor area. I have been chatting up a storm all morning with my new buddy Stephanie who's son Trey is having medpor with Dr Lewin today also. LOL, she is updating her blog next to me :)
There was some worry last night at our pre op of where the hair is growing from and is it on the skin being removed today or down in the canal. Dr Reinisch said he was going to clean everything up and take a good look at everything and I am staying upbeat and hopeful that this will be a success.

Here We Go!!!

We are getting pretty close to Robbies medpor surgery on March 23 and of course we are being tested once again. A couple weeks ago at his ENT appointment his canal was packed full of lots of hard gunk. After a week of softening it with drops they were able to get everything out and see the ear drum which looked good. He did have a lot of hair growing inside the canal though. After the cleaning we went in for a year post op hearing test. He still has mild hearing loss and it did go down a little but not enough to aid. We will keep our fingers crossed when school starts that his hearing wont be an issue.
So at the end of last week we were thinking it will be smooth sailing until we see Dr Reinisch but........ when the weekend hit so did some gunk coming out of the canal. Back to the ENT this last Tuesday and the culture showed a bacteria and fungus infection (GREAT). We will alternate two drops until his preop with Dr Reinish a week from Tuesday.
Stay tuned....