Phoenix's Surgery

I am roughly 6 weeks behind on my blogging! Back on April 25, 2013, Phoenix had surgery to remove a Cholesteotoma in his right ear. We've been following some mild hearing loss in that ear for about a year now. No one was ever sure what was causing the hearing loss, we saw Dr. Hartzell at ACH in March and he diagnosed the Cholesteotoma. Although the growth has been there since birth, it was just now large enough to see it. We also decided to have a Preauricular Ear Pit on Phoenix's left ear removed at this time. This is a harmless little "sinus" near Phoenix's ear, but since it sometimes had discharge we decided to have it removed since he would already be under anesthesia. Both the Cholesteotoma and the Ear Pit are related to Phoenix's Chromosomal Disorder 22q11.2.

The Resident initialed the Ear Pit on the left ear

and behind the right ear...don't want them cutting on the wrong ear :/

After surgery in our private recovery room.

He had to wear the cup in the above picture for 24 hrs., then he could take it off and wear it while he slept. Oddly enough, he preferred to wear it most of the time.

Mrs. Joy, our Preschool director, came by with some goodies for P! He was so happy! It is HARD to keep a 3 year old boy entertained with quiet, calm activities!

He had to keep a Cotton Ball in the ear for 2 weeks!

We had to clean the incision twice a day for two weeks! We used a Hydrogen Peroxide Solution and Neosporin. We are so proud of our big guy, he handled this surgery and recovery like a CHAMP!

Wyatt came over to play for awhile one day. They were laying like this watching "Daniel's Tiger Neighborhood." Every few minutes Wyatt would turn around and look at Phoenix and go back to watching TV.