Cholesteatoma Ear Surgery...

Cholestea...whatta??! I know, I said the same thing the first time the doctor said it to me. I don't want to go into what it is too much on this post...if you're curious what it is, its easy to google and find lots about it. So August 11th we checked into surgery at 6 AM, Christian was scheduled to start surgery at 8AM. By 10AM they had finally begun. He took the anesthesia like a champ(and had to be intubated). He was in surgery for about 3.5 hours. We are glad they released Christian and did not require an overnight stay in the hospital. Christian did relatively well. There was a rough patch in recovery...but once they controlled his pain, he felt much more at ease. The cholestoetoma was very large and had caused pretty extensive damage. The Dr. had to remove all but half of one bone in the middle ear. He feels he got most/all of the growth...but will go back in 6 mo- 1year to make sure. It is unclear if the hearing will be about the same or slightly worse...its a wait and see type deal. It is also unclear if he will be able to reconstruct anything...mostly because he had to remove much of everything that he would have used to connect a reconstruct to. Anyhow...we are hopeful this is the beginning of a healthier ear....and can only pray that it will not come back to cause further damage. For now, we are just laying low and allowing the ear to heal. Luckily he still has one more full week before school starts. He should be pretty much up to normal by then (as long as no one touches his incision).

Do my sleepy eyes give the 6AM away??

He played lots of GBA before surgery as a distraction! He was also hilarious...dancing on the gurney and cracking jokes

In recovery...in a lot of pain and confusion.

Not a very clear picture...but you can vaguely see the incision post surgery.