One Month Update

Miles surgery was a few days shy of one month ago. His rib grafting scab has finally fallen off, which was the source of quite a bit of drama in our house. It decided to fall off in two parts, so we got to repeat the whole episode a couple of days apart. Miles' ear is healing well. He only wears the ear cup at night by Dr. Bonilla's recommendation and is back to being able to swim in the pool. School will start soon and we will have to make some adjustments there, but we hope he will be careful enough that we don't have to worry. His next surgery to start side two is on October 3rd. He doesn't want to go back because it "hurt",  but we told him that is not an option and he seems to be okay with that......for now. I think a month of school will be enough of a distraction that we should be ready to go again by then. The time will go by fast and I'm not sure how ready we will be, but we have learned a few things that will hopefully help us the second time around:

-No Versed before surgery, wasn't worth the drama

-Benadryl immediately out of surgery to help relax him during his waking stage

-He will feel worse after the epidural wears off

-Not to stress over constipation after surgery 

-He will only need the pain pills for 2 days after, but load up on Tylenol for the next 4

-Miles is going to freak out about everything and we have to be okay with that!!! 

We are still very happy with how he has healed and the results after stage one. As much as we are looking forward to the next stage, there is more anticipation for all of this to be behind us and since we are just starting out, that seems forever away!

15 Day Post Op Appointment

Most out-of-state patients have to stay in San Antonio until their two week follow-up, but because we live in Houston, we were allowed to come home and go back. Dr. Bonilla, was kind enough to let us come in on a Sunday to accommodate our work schedules , after he came straight from the airport, returning from Colorado to attend the Microtia/Atresia picnic held there this past Saturday. He said Miles was healing great and then took out the stitches at the front of Miles' new ear where he made the incision to insert the rib cartilage. He then answered our barrage of questions for an hour until we finally released him to go see his family and we made the long three hour trip home. He is still possibly one of the nicest most humble guys we have ever met and he is fantastic with Miles. He told us to go ahead and schedule our next surgery for late September early October for stage 1 on the other ear. It stresses me out to think we have to go through stage 1 all over again. Miles has already told us he doesn't want anymore surgery. We keep telling him Dr. Bonilla is not finished yet and he has to get through all the stages. Hopefully a couple of months off will help ease his mind before the next procedure. Overall Miles has handled all of this okay, but it's probably safe to say it is as good as we expected knowing the type of kid he is. He gets a lot of anxiety before any type of doctor visit now and wants to know exactly what is going to happen and what it will feel like. No appointment has been without tears, but that seems like something we are just going to have to get used to or he will have to grow out of . We have to be thankful that after an undetermined amount of time, Miles gives in and lets the doctor do what he needs to do. We always tell him how proud of him we are after and he usually concedes to being a bit over-dramatic at the time. These pictures were taken this morning. The first shows where the stitches came out in front of the ear. The next is just an updated ear pic and the last is the incision for the rib area. Dr. Bonilla used dissolvable stitches there and the darkened area is mostly a scab that will lift off eventually. (The markings around the rib incision are from tape residual which is proving harder to remove than I thought, even after several baths.) The remaining scar from the rib graft will be about 3/4 of an inch and should fade with time. 

Congratulations!!

Congrats to the McHugh Family on the birth of 

Cannon David McHugh:  7/17/13. Our love to you all!!

Happy 50th Birthday Auntie Steff

Love, Miles, Avery, Chris and Christine

Two Week Post-op

It will be two weeks on Thursday since the surgery and Miles' ear has been healing well. He seems to be retaining a little fluid in the rib area but the doctor said that is normal as long as it isn't getting bigger. On Sunday we head back out to San Antonio to meet with Dr. Bonilla again. He was nice enough to agree to see us on a Sunday (still can't say enough great things about him). We have a follow up for stitches removal and I will ask him to look at that area then to make sure it is okay. Miles finally gets to take a bath today, first time since before surgery, which is what I am looking forward to most:)