children's museum

the year continues to drag on - life in kindergarten....this weekend we attended an AGCI get together at the children's museum. Reese enjoyed herself and found some other kids from China to chum up with.

No Teeth!!

January 21, 2010

No more bandages and dressings!! Reese can use her frankensteins next week!!

2nd stage of surgery

January 4, Reese had her next surgery for her bone anchored hearing aids. The surgery took about 2 1/2 hours but she did well again. She was quite annoyed with the bandages this time but we managed to keep them on for 48 hours. After 3 days she was more than ready to go back to school. She had her dressing changed a week later and in the next few weeks she will be able to use the "frankensteins" for her aids - no more headband!!

Christmas 2009

Reese, as always, enjoyed Christmas this year. She had another surgery, her 2nd for her bone anchored bone conduction hearing aid, on January 4. It wasn't as invasive as the last one but she seemed more painful. But the following day she was just fine. The doctor said she can go back to school in a week but I think that mama will lose her mind before then. Maybe after 3 days....

post surgery

Reese had me take pictures of her stitches - before and after - since she couldn't see them herself. She is now back to her normal naughty self with the next surgery scheduled for December 17.

surgery

On August 20, Reese had surgery to place bone anchored hearing aids. The doctor was originally going to do the surgery in one stage but changed his mind and decided to be conservative and do it in two. Titanium screws were placed behind both ears, into her skull and the skin was pulled back over the screws. After 4 months, the skin will be pulled back again and a sort of snap will be put on the screws so that she can attach her hearing aids to them and will no longer need a headband. The surgery lasted about 2 1/2 hours and she was not a happy camper coming out of the anesthesia. They had originally said that she should not have much pain, but apparantly it was more complex than the doctor expected due to her malformations. He actually had to drill 2 holes in her left side because the first screw popped right thru the skull, it was in a place that was not dense enough. The first hole should heal up though. So, yesterday was not a good day for Reese and she had more pain than we had expected. Today is better as long as we stay on top of the pain meds.
When this process is all done, she should have improved hearing which is so important at her age. She is learning so much at school and this should help with her speech and pronunciation.