2 days After Surgery

Someone is loving not having the bandages in anymore! He is still having little nosebleeds, but no one seems to be concerned. 

The Massey side is in town for our annual family reunion. We are headed to Louisville for the day. 

Does this look comfy?

Left side-only swelling is on the actual incision. 

Right side-they had to shave more hair here but the hair still covers it. 

Ready for the game!

His own personal jersey from Aunt Jodi and Uncle Josh! You can barely see the incision through his hair. Crazy!! And he can wear clothes that go over the head. In the past, you wouldn't have been able to for at least a few more days! And don't worry, we have his Bama jersey for later!! 

A Notre Dame and a Bama win! It's a good day in our household!

I found these Mizzou pajamas at the consignment sale a couple of weeks ago. Thought it would be good for the Massey reunion with all of our Mizzou family!

 

1 Day After Surgery

Brody slept for most of the day. He did wake up for a snack and dinner. He also played a little and skyped with Grammy. 

Someone else took advantage of Brody napping to cuddle up with mommy and daddy. 

Tonight we were able to wipe off some of the dried blood with a wet washcloth. Then we put some antibiotic cream that Dr. Choo had prescribed. He gets to leave the dressing off now! Brody was very happy to take it off! 

Activation Is Scheduled!

I just talked to Cincinnati Children's. We decided to take separate appointments with Dr. Choo and the audiologists in order to get seen sooner. (We're such rule breakers!) We will see Dr. Choo on September 10th to check the incision site. Then, the following Monday, September 16th, we will have activation day!!!!! It will be Brody's hearing birthday! We are so excited for it! Then we have two follow up appointments for mappings on October 9th and 30th. Mappings are adjustments to the programs on the external device. The audiologist will do these. We were seeing Laura Tucker Welte, but now we are seeing Michael Scott. He is actually the Implant Team Coordinator there. 

CAN'T WAIT!!!

Discharge

6:50-

8:30-They took out his IV and he is so happy to be able to use both hands! He keeps waving it :)

 

8:50am-in the car heading home. He had another nose bleed as we were leaving, but they said it was okay. Sometimes they have blood discharge after head surgery. 

 

9:15am-Talked to the scheduling department. We have an appointment with Dr. Choo scheduled for September 10th. The audiologist we were working with is on maternity leave and they are swamped! One doctor had a first available in October! And the other at the end of September. They are trying to fit us in earlier and are going to call us back. 

Passed out! So when we get home, he will stay asleep...right?! Mommy and Daddy are sleepy too!

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Post-op

2:45pm-we are in the recovery area with Brody! He's doing great! They gave him apple juice and some morpheme. If he can keep the apple juice down, he can start working towards a normal diet. 

The head dressing is just gauze over each ear with a Velcro band to hold it on. 

Drinking some apple juice and being nosey of the other patients. The dressing on his arm is for his vitals and his IV. 

5:45pm-Brody woke up around 5. He had taken a little nap. We are in his own room now. Currently he is lounging back, eating ice cream, and watching college football. What more could you need?

He seems to be doing really good pain wise. So far he hasn't been vomiting either. His main mission right now is trying to fugue out how to get the IV out if his arm! 

11:40pm-watching Nemo and going in and out of sleep. Brody is in a little pain. They just have him some more tylenol. So far he passes out for awhile once it kicks in.  He's been pulling his monitors off and keeping the nurse on her toes. Although he is eating, he isn't drinking much. They have had him on fluids since surgery. The nurse said with them they don't always feel thirsty. We sat him up for a few minutes and he got a nose bleed. The ENT on call said that unless it was really gushing blood, it wasn't a concern. It stopped right away and he hasn't had another one. 

5:00am-Woke up when the nurse had to take his temperature. Our night nurse, May, has been awesome. She thinks Brody is hilarious. He will only let her use the stethoscope if he holds it against himself. He moves it back and forth for her too. She had been taking vitals all night without waking him up, but the way he was positioned she couldn't get it under his arm with out disturbing him. He woke up and ate some chocolate pudding. I was able to get him to drink some fruit punch too. Jordan rocked him for a little bit and they watched Rio (has a lot of colorful birds in it that Brody thinks is absolutely the funniest thing ever). We put him back in the crib with the iPad and the TV. What a life! May just gave him some more Tylenol and he passed right out! We should be getting discharged in the next few hours. 

Surgery Time!

9:45am-Just got our first update from the OR nurse. Dr. Choo just opened up his first ear!

11:15am-second update from OR. They said the first implant is in and working. They just closed him up and are starting on the other side. They just called and reported to the receptionist so I didn't get to ask if all the electrodes are working correctly. We are just assuming that no news is good news. 

12:00pm-Jordan is bored :) Enjoying the video game set up with his mom!

2:10pm-He's out! Jordan and I just sat down with Dr. Choo. He said he's very happy with the surgery! Apparently Brody has a textbook head and it couldn't have gone more perfect. He was able to get all electrodes in and they are all working perfectly! I'm posting some images below that Dr. Choo took of the left ear during the surgery (If you don't like gory pictures, you can stop scrolling here!). 

This is the internal magnet. The black line going across it is a procedure that not all doctors do, but Dr. Choo does. He puts two small screws on either side with a string to hold it down to anchor it so it won't slip out of the pocket. Once he heals (hopefully 2 weeks), they will activate the external piece which looks kind of like a hearing aid. When the external and internal magnets touch, the external sound processor will give him sound. 

This shows the electrode anchor line. 

The part that looks like it is kind of going down a hole is the electrodes. There are 22 electrodes on each ear. Dr. Choo said when they checked it during surgery, all of the electrodes worked perfectly! You can't see the actual Cochlea in any picture, but it's down the hole. 

In between the wires, there is the facial nerve (the whiter part). This is one part they have to watch when cutting so they don't hit it. 

Everything looks great now! We are just waiting for him to start waking up in recovery for us to go back. Thank you for all of your prayers!!!

Ready for surgery!

5:30am-On our way to the hospital with Otis (his stuffed dog)!! So excited for Cochlear Implant surgery!

6:30am-in the waiting room!

7:00am-in the pre-op room!

Thanks to Aunt Sara, Otis is ready for surgery too!

Just talked to Dr. Choo. He expects the surgery to only be 5-6 hours including recovery time. 30 minutes for prepping for surgery. Then, around 3 hours for surgery. Recovery should only be 45 minutes or so. 

Brody isn't too sure what to think about the hospital room. He's trying to pull out all the cords he can find. And he's finally realized he is hungry. He's been signing milk over and over. 

9:00am-getting ready to head to head to the induction room for anesthesia! They will put a mask on him and said he should be asleep with in a minute or so! Jordan and I get to stay with him until he goes in the operation room!

So tired and hungry!

Child life brought him some new toys to play with!

9:10am- already out and in the OR!

We didn't get a picture with the anesthesia. He went too quick. Otis is on his bed ready for the OR! They are going to come out and update us every so often. 

Wordless Wednesdays 8-21-13

Brody and I had a long weekend without Jordan! I don't know how all my friends that are single parents do it! I'm still tired :) Jordan joined some of his old fraternity brothers for a baseball trip. They started in Tampa going to a Rays game and then continued onto Miami for a Marlins game. He had fun, but we missed him!

Uncle Biggs sent a Brody a Rays outfit when he was born. It fit the week the guys had their trip to see the Rays!

Saturday, I had a garage sale. People bought a majority of my junk! Very excited to clean out a lot of the basement.

Saturday night, I joined some of my sorority sisters for a bachelorette party downtown Louisville. Brody got to hang out with Grandma and Papa Brown. While he was there, their dog, Izzy, got sprayed by a skunk! Everything smelled so bad! Poor Izzy!

Sunday, I met back up with Brody, Grandma, Papa Brown, and JoJo for lunch.

Where did my baby go? He looks so big!

We hung out the rest of the day wishing Daddy would hurry up and come home!

We sent Daddy a photo shoot when I ran out of ideas to entertain Brody with! Brody loved it!

 

Monday was my school's meet and greet. I have a three year old classroom again this year! Jordan came home Monday night.

I stated school Tuesday and Brody went to the pediatrician. He had to have a physical within 30 days of his surgery. He is 28 pounds and 31 inches tall. Big boy, but we love him!

He loves Finding nemo now. He watches and signs fish the whole time!

Only a week until the Cochlear Implant surgery!!!!!!!!!!! We are soooo excited!!!!!!!

 

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Wordless Wednesdays 8-14-13

Brody has had another busy week! We have enjoyed being able to FaceTime with Aunt Sara...we miss her! We also Skyped with Grammy!

 

Thursday night, Great Aunt Karen and Uncle Keith stopped by for dinner. They didn't like Brody's pictures from the farm riding the Massey-Fergeson, so they brought him a John Deer tractor and hat!

 

 

 

Saturday, Jordan had an alumni golf tournament for his fraternity. Griffin, better known to us as McLovin, who was the best man in our wedding came down Friday night. We went out to dinner. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to Richmond, KY. Brody and I hit up some garage sales (awesome slide, tons of Brody clothes, and a bowling set). Then, we went back to the golf course to wait for Jordan and McLovin to finish up.

 

Brody entertained himself with the wind shield wipers while we waited.

 

We headed to Louisville afterwards to go to Nickels for Nico. It was a for a cornhole tournament to benefit the Smith Meginis foundation. It is another rare genetic condition. A little boy from my school/who Aunt Sara baby sat before she moved is Nico. Jordan and I made it past the first round, but lost in the second. Brody enjoyed getting his flirt on with Miss Nikki while we played.

Then, we headed to St. Joe's picnic (kind of like the St. Chris Festival for you Ohio people). Brody hadn't had a good nap, so we didn't last long there. Jordan was happy to leave once he won a cake :)

Sunday, Grammy and Papa Tom, met us for lunch at Wild Eggs on their way to Nashville for business. Brody loves a good omelet from there!

 

Monday was my last full day home with the Brody Monster before I started teacher meetings :( I've been trying to talk Jordan into letting me stay home with him, but as much as I will miss Brody, I think I would miss teaching too.

 

 

 

Watching Daddy cut the grass.

 

Monday night, we had his IFSP meeting. An IFSP is a plan set by his therapists to make goals for the next six months. We are backing off some of his physical therapy and adding an occupational therapist. We are also adding speech. Poor kiddo will have a lot of therapists, but I would rather have the early intervention now then have therapist follow him all of his life. We have some good therapist too! The new goals we made included walking, standing on his own, and auditorally (through only listening) identify 30 words. The last goal will be after he is implanted. Oh yeah...15 MORE DAYS UNTIL SURGERY!!!!!

 

 

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