Peter's Surgery Update

So, today was THE big day for Peter, and by extension, for us.  Today was the day he got his ear!  We got an early start this morning up and out of the house by 5:45 AM to get to the Cedar-Sinai outpatient surgical center, which is about 15 minutes away.  Last night, Peter’s birthday, he had a big dinner so didn’t really quibble about not eating when he woke up. 

We got him in there and they started their usual barrage of questions…”you have insurance, right?  Can we see your card?  Who is your employer?  How about that card again?  Sign Here.  If you don’t have insurance pleas sign here and certify that you are undocumented so we can perform whatever you need anyway and send the bill to Sacramento” (like the 42 people who already photocopied our card would have let us get to this point if we didn’t??  I wanted to tell them to send the bill to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, or maybe to Bart Stupak’s house, but I refrained.)   Actually, they were all very nice today – this is more reflective of my overall experience with these folks.

Dr. L bounded into the room full of energy at about 6:30 this morning – her enthusiasm is as infectious as it is unnatural, but hey, this lady loves what she does and it (along with the several hours we’ve already spent talking to her) gave us great comfort to hand Peter over for this procedure.  Just like with the atresia repair (that wasn’t really repaired) in March, he got absolutely loaded from the loopy kool aid they gave him at the start.  Stick him in East Lansing in a flannel shirt and a Budweiser cap, and he was me circa 1993.  Smiling at all the ladies, blubbering about nothing in particular, laughing at his own mumblings.  At least he was cute, though, and adjective which I cannot claim for myself J  Let’s hope he gets it all out of his system by the time he has two ears – it will save him a boat load of embarrassment and money that would otherwise be spent on Shark Bowls (don’t ask Mom).  Here are some photos of our loopy boy before surgery.

When they examined him, the anesthesiologist asked if anyone has ever mentioned that he had a heart murmur.  He asked “does he have trouble keeping up with other children?  Has he ever turned blue when he runs around?  Is he a low energy child?”  We politely suppressed a belly laugh and explained that these symptoms didn’t apply.  Anyhow, his pediatrician noticed this some time back as well, but wasn’t concerned.  The anesthesiologist said we should have an ultrasound done on his heart when we get home though as he felt it was a fairly loud murmur, something they would keep an eye on during surgery. 

Peter officially went back with Dr. Lewin at about 7:15 AM, after she traced Amy’s ear on a piece of clear plastic (remember, she was NOT interested in giving the boy my ears J) and that was the last we saw of him until about 5 o’clock.  Throughout the day they called us periodically to let us know how things were going, and were always very reassuring.  Everything turned out great – they were able to get a great slice of skin from his scalp because he has lots of very active blood vessels in the right layer (e.g. with no hair follicles).  I couldn’t help but think that the Iroquois would be impressed with how much more precise a laser is than a tomahawk.  Then again, I think they had a different objective, but I was dazzled by it.  Dr. L actually showed us a picture of his ear before she bandaged it all up and it looked amazing.  She will email us the picture, probably sometime over the weekend, and we will post.   The photos were nice because there was no swelling yet, no purple bruising yet, no dry icky scabs yet…all things to come.  It will look worse before it looks better.

She is a great doctor but also great with kids.  Peter brought his little stuffed dog which he calls “Puppy” with him, and she actually took the dog and bandaged him up the same way as Peter.  It was hilarious, and Peter was pretty excited.  When we got home though, Samuel was very confused.  “Why does the dog have a bandage?” as he tried to rip it off and see.  “What happened to the dog’s ear?” (Meanwhile Peter is being carried in half mummified with bags of blood draining from his scalp into not-so-little  balloons and Samuel barely noticed.)  We explained that they just wanted the dog to look like Peter so he would smile, and Samuel just didn’t’ get it.  “But WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE DOG’S EAR?!!!”.  He finally gave up, concluding that we had a screw loose for giving a healthy dog a bandage.  He finally asked what the red balloons were dangling from Peter’s head.  We told him “blood”, and he immediately grimaced and turned to the cherry flavored pedialyte on the table and asked very seriously “What is in the cup?”.

After being under for so long today, Peter was pretty groggy, but he was in good spirits overall.  He had a little to eat, barfed if up, waited a while, and then tried some more which he kept down, but was really doing well.  The skin graft spot on his head and groin seemed to bother him which nothing else in particular seemed to at all.  He is really a trooper.  He just took it right n stride.  Really amazing.

One bit of good/bad news was that, while she was able to repair the outer hole on the left ear that he had done in March, she noted that the ear canal was very tiny and suggested that before we get his left ear done that we consider actually having it filled in.  She said that it is so narrow, she can't imagine much sound getting in.  If she’s right, this could complicate our timeline significantly, and also involve more surgery for Peter.  On a day when so much was accomplished for him, it’s hard to get too down on this note, but we are very disappointed about this.  We will have to balance whether the risk and maintenance of keeping it open (e.g. cleanings, possibility that it closes back up after he has an ear there – which would complicate things) against the potential benefit (we will have to test his hearing and see whether any real amount of sound is getting in there.  

Anyhow, we are very grateful for your prayers, and Peter could continue to use them of course as his ear, ear, and stomach/head (where the skin grafts came from) continue to heal.
  
Tomorrow, if Peter is feeling OK, we are going to get out of dodge, since the pride march rolls through town and I do not want to see any more dude-on-dude PDA (the other day pretty much exceeded my lifetime quota). Of all the weekends. I believe I speak for the silent majority when I say that I want the rainbow back. Anyhow, enough ranting.  We will let you know how he does through the night and tomorrow but so far, so good!