J-Man had a birthday this week. He was pretty excited about turning 7. Woohoo! He is really into Legos this year and that was all he asked for. He choose his favorite for birthday dinner--spaghetti and meatballs, and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for dessert.
Obviously the victim of yet another bad haircut from Mom. Sigh...
But his truly big news is that he is going to begin the process of ear reconstruction. He will be having three surgeries over the next 18 months. The first one is next Wednesday and it will be a 7 hour surgery! UGH. He will be in the hospital for two days. The surgeon will take cartilage from his ribs and make an ear out of it! It will be placed under the skin where his ear should be and stay there for the next 18 months. The final surgery will release the ear from it's "protective pocket' and Ta-Da! he will have an ear!
We would love your prayers for the surgeon and for Jordan. This isn't an easy surgery. I found this description online for what the surgeon is up against.
9. Why is the repair of microtia with living tissues so technically challenging?
For long-term success in microtia repair, one must create a 3-dimensional ear sculpture from living cartilage in an acceptable time under operating room conditions, then develop a “pocket” under snug 2-dimensional skin to house that framework— without cutting off the circulation to that skin. It is like trying to place 5 lbs. of plaster into a 2 lb. bag, but doing it with living tissue! Furthermore, since cartilage can’t be visualized by X-ray as bone can, one never knows what the rib cartilage configuration will be like before surgery. Therefore, the surgeon must “make do” and sculpt a realistic ear framework with the cartilage encountered at surgery, no matter how difficult that may be.
I will of course be taking my laptop to the hospital and will be updating everyone on Jordan's condition. I asked him yesterday after his post-op testing, "Jordan, do you feel scared, excited or neither?"
Typical for a male, he said, 'Neither," and continued eating his chocolate cupcake.
So there you go! Just another day for him.
