I'll try to keep it from being a mile-long post, so here goes!
After doing our homework and getting doctors' opinions and even 2nd opinions, we will be having surgery in the near future (hopefully this month) to remove the cholosteatomas in both of Annika's ears. She will also need ear canal reconstruction in both canals, and we don't know yet if that will all be done at the same time or separate surgeries. Once her ear canals heal (approx. 6 months), we will be flying to California around Aug/Sept to have Annika's first ear done. <3 About 3 months later, we will fly back to California for the 2nd ear surgery. By the end of 2017, our Annika should have two brand new pairs of ears healing hopefully quite nicely on her head. (PRAISE THE LORD!!!) We are thankful that the doctors agree that this is medically necessary (and not just aesthetics) for Annika. Insurance-wise, that will help!
Dr. Sheryl Lewin is a well-known plastic surgeon in the ear community and one of the best doctors out there in the Microtia world. Her life work is dedicated to creating beautiful ears for patients like Annika. We want nothing but the best when it comes to Annika's ears, so that's why we chose her. She is located in California and we are looking forward to meeting her face to face this summer when we travel to California for the Earicles conference! Dr. Lewin and Dr. Paul Bauer (our ENT specialist here) will be talking and communicating closely in regards to the surgeries he performs here on Annika as he prepares the way for Dr. Lewin to be able to make Annika two brand new ears.
Currently, we are waiting to hear back from Dr. Bauer, who we just gave the go ahead to move forward with planning her surgery for the cholosteatomas to be removed and ear canal reconstructions. Dr. Bauer is an excellent doctor and well -renowned around here. He has been INCREDIBLE with our family so far and Jay and I have been very impressed with his knowledge and genuine personality.
We took Annika today to another craniofacial doctor here in Fort Worth. We got a 2nd opinion on Annika's ears, and he is sending us to meet with a geneticist and also put in an order to have a renal sonogram done on Annika. He said that a lot of times, children born with microtia often have problems in their renal system, so he just wants to rule that out. She also has some minor things about her physical appearance that a geneticist could tell us more since we have no biological parent information. (See how going to one doctor appt leads to more medical appts!? ;)
Next week, Annika gets fitted for her hearing devices AND has a 2-month followup with our eye specialist, Dr. Hunt. He will be looking to see if the esotropia in both eyes has improved since wearing glasses and discuss possible eye muscle surgery. I took this picture today (isn't she beautiful? :) and you can see her eyes are still turning inward.
So, needless to say, we are in the midst of a TON of doctor appointments and life is just a weeeeee bit cray-cray around here, but if you ask Annika how life is.... She'll probably give you a thumbs up and a smile. :) And I couldn't agree more.
God is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment