The Otologist Appointment

Well, it is Ashlyn's 8th birthday today. Last night at 8:00 pm, we left for Tampa to stay at my sister's house. We had an 8:30 am appointment this morning with the Otologist Dr. Farrior. He said the cholesteatoma was pretty bad and might need two surgeries. He will take bone from her skull to try and reconstruct the hearing bones, but doesn't think it will do much. He will also take skin from her thigh to use for quicker healing. Sounded very knowledgeable and knew what he was talking about. He said the surgery would last at least three hours and would be done at St. Joseph's Hospital. He also said that she could resume normal activities after a couple of days except for swimming. He thinks that her submucous cleft palate caused the cholesteatoma to grow so large and envelop so much of her ear. He said the hearing probably wouldn't come back with this surgery, but possibly when she's 10-12 years old her eustachian tube might clear up some and she could possibly get a procedure done to improve hearing. They wanted to do the surgery on March 3rd, but she will be going on her big Sea World field trip on March 4th and we didn't want her to miss it. So we scheduled it for March 10th with pre-op on March 9th. I'm very nervous about my baby going under again, but she needs this surgery badly. If surgery is not performed, she could get facial paralysis, complete permanent hearing loss, and possibly brain/blood infections. If you are a praying person, please pray for the surgeon's hands during the operation, and my baby girl getting through and recovering quickly.

On another note, we got to see my sister Kara and her husband Chris (and their dog Kodi). My sister is getting pretty pregnant looking, or as she calls it, large and in charge ;-) I think she looks absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to meet my little niece. I just want to say thank you so much to them for letting us stay with them when we're over there and giving us the support we need...love you guys!