1 Year post - Right Ear

July 9, 2014

1 Year Post - Right Ear

Ok, so this post is long over due, but I wanted to document it anyway.  This summer marked the 1 year anniversary of Sam's right ear.  Everything is healing nicely and looks great! 

Post-op with Dr. Reinisch

February 10, 2014

Post-op for the 12/23/13 surgery

We are so lucky that Dr. Reinisch is up in the Bay Area once a month to do a CAM surgery with Dr. Roberson.  We get to see him often so he can check things out in person.  He is happy with the way the ear is healing and all but one of the sutures is out.  The one that is left is stubborn.  It's not on the ear itself, but on the skin more at the back of the ear/neck.  I will continue to work on getting it out.  I spoke with him about how the right ear is still more projected than the left and he told me that he didn't bring it in all the way to match the left one because he thought that as Sam gets older she may want to put hair behind her ear.  If there isn't a little projection, so most likely couldn't do this.  I hadn't even thought about this...the man seriously thinks of everything!  Her left ear is pretty flat to the head now, but we can address that later if we decide to.  She wore the ear mold on the left side for 5 months, so for some reason it "settled" more after that.  I will just encourage Sam to sleep more on the right side now and hopefully it will "settle" in a little more over time.  Overall, we are really happy! 

Right ear comparasion - this ear is 6 months old, with a revision done on 12/23/13

Front view

Back of ear - still healing from surgery on 12/23/13

This view Dr. Reinisch likes to see for alignment.  You can see that the right ear is still more projected than the left. With her hair down, you can't even notice.

Happy Birthday Left Ear

February 2, 2014

1 year post-op Left Ear

It's hard to believe it's been 1 year since we started this ear reconstruction journey.   Samantha couldn't be happier and wanted to mark this milestone with a party for her ear!   Any excuse to have friends come over and eat some treats!  We invited over her close friends and had a fun play date.

Before and After - Pretty amazing!

Group pic of the girls, Sam's "Deaf friends" as we call them.  Two girls wear Cochlear Implants, 1 wears hearing aids and Sam with her Baha.  We met this wonderful group of friends through Sam's Auditory Oral school when the girls were all about 6 months old.  It's so amazing to see how far they've all come.  Sweet little girls!

Sam and her chocolate "ear".  Dr. Roberson so kindly gave us a few chocolate "ears" to share at the party.  I couldn't decide if they were creepy or fun.  The kids seemed to love them, so I guess it was ok!

Teddy Bear Tea

January 10, 2014

Today was the Teddy Bear Tea at Sam's school.  She chose to bring and share her bear that was given to her by Dr. Reinisch and the Small Wonders Foundation after her first ear surgery.  It was cute to hear her tell her class about the bear and where it came from. 

Right Ear Adjustment

12/23/2013

Right Ear Adjustment

I haven't blogged in a bit, so I'm going to play a little catch up, so please bare with me.   We ended 2013 with another ear surgery for Sam.  On 12/23/13, Dr. Reinisch did an adjustment on her right ear.  It was sitting a little lower than the left on and was projected out much further as well.  It didn't "settle" in as much as the left on, most likely due to the different bone structure on the right side of her face.  We were pretty happy with the left one so we asked him not to touch that one in surgery.  

Just as Dr. Reinisch said this surgery was pretty short compared to the others.  It only took about 2.5 hours.  No skin grafts were taken so the recovery was pretty minimal as well.  She also didn't have to wear a protective cup over it either.  Right away, we could notice a difference in the ear placement, so we were excited to see how it heals over the next few months. 

You can see that there is minimal swelling 2 days after surgery.  This will continue to get better over time.