Elizabeth’s Surgery

The week before we left for New York, Lizza had surgery on her ear. 

When she was born her right ear was almost completely folded over (it’s called a constricted ear deformity).  We were told there was nothing really we could do about it until she was 5 or 6, and then she could get surgery done to correct it. 

Daniel spent his first night home from the hospital researching it, and he found a company in England that sold little plastic forms that could be fitted inside the ear to help the cartilage harden in the right position.  We ordered some of those right away and then did our best to keep her ear taped up for the first 6 months of her life (after that she wouldn’t stop ripping the tape off, but also by then the cartilage wasn’t going to change much anyway). 

Keeping her ear taped up with the form inside helped a little bit (it was definitely better than when she was born), but it was still pretty noticeable (especially since she was bald for a long time). 

The funny thing is that she has never cared about her ear at all, which I think is a big blessing (also that she doesn’t have any hearing problems).  I thought that as she got older she would start to feel self-conscious about it, but she ended up having the perfect personality to deal with having a quirky little birth defect.  We had mentioned to her a few times that when she was 5 or 6 she would have surgery to help her ear, and as it got closer to her surgery date we talked to her about it a little more. 

A few months ago she was looking at pictures from when she was younger, and she came running to me shouting, “Mom, you will not believe this!  I was looking at pictures of me when I was a baby, and my ear is so weird!  It kind of looks like an elf ear!”  Then she stopped and looked in the mirror – I could tell she was studying her ear carefully – and she got a half surprised/half disgusted look on her face.  Then she said, “Mom! It might even look like a troll ear!”

I started laughing, but inside I was worried that she was going to be sad about her ear now (I was thinking, well at least now she’ll only have a few months of dealing with being self-conscious).  It didn’t even phase her, though – she left the room just as happy as she always is.  It was just like, “hmm, that’s kind of funny to have a troll ear.  Crazy.  I am so cute.  I think I’ll go hunt for bugs now.” 

Anyway, her surgery was scheduled for May 9th.  I took some “before” pictures that morning:

Here she is with some “happy surgery day” presents (I knew she was going to be nervous that morning, so I wanted to do something fun to distract her).  She also got some special drinks (she wasn’t allowed to eat anything that day, but she could drink clear liquids until 3 hours before the surgery). 

One of her special presents was a little diary book.  I thought it might be fun for her to write about her surgery.  I also thought she would just write in it that day, and then use the rest of it for coloring in, but she loved the idea of having a diary and she took it really seriously.  Since her surgery, she has written in it almost every day (and sometimes multiple times per day).  She always draws cute little pictures to go along with her entries. 

Here is her first entry: “Today is my surgery and I am kind of happy and nervous”

Then she drew a picture of her laying on a bed and a doctor about to cut her with some scissors.

She also wrote about how Henry was a little jealous of the drink situation (he kept complaining about how it wasn’t fair that only Lizza got to have surgery):

“Henry wants to have a surgery because I get special juice.”

Another one of her presents was a pack of gum, and she wrote about sharing it with the other kids:

“And when we are done I will share my treats with OTR”

(OTR = Oliver, Tristan, and Rachel.  I had told her I didn’t want Henry and Cindy to have gum)

We dropped off Henry and Cynthia at a friend’s house (the older kids were at school), and then headed down to the surgery center in Austin.

There was lots of waiting:                                           

She was allowed to bring one “cuddle item”, and she chose to bring along her faithful dog, Frenchy, who has been with her for many years. 

The cutest surgery patient ever, all set in her gown and ready to be wheeled into the surgery room.  She was being such a good sport, but I could tell she was pretty nervous, because her little heart was beating super fast.  I distracted her by pointing out a tiny bug that was crawling along the top of her bed.  We decided it had come to visit her because it knew she loves bugs.

She wrote about it later in her diary:

“Oh, and at the surgery a bug landed on my bed and I am happy cause I love bugs.”  I love her picture – she’s holding Frenchy and you can see the little bug on her bed.

Daniel and I couldn’t be in the surgery room with her, so we waited anxiously in the waiting room.  About 2 hours later they wheeled her in to us.  The actual surgery only took about 1 1/2 hours, but it took her another half hour to fully wake up (although she was still pretty groggy).

We couldn’t see her ear yet, because she was all bandaged up, but the doctor told us it had gone really well:

Here she is eating a popsicle, which she immediately threw up.  We had to stay in recovery for about an hour after that, because she was having a hard time holding anything down. 

We finally were able to take her home.  She felt pretty sick at first, but about an hour after we got home she perked right up, and recovered really well after that. 

She was pretty pleased with the giant “get well” cookie my friend had made:

She made sure to document that in her diary:

She had to wear all of her bandages for four days.  She was a really good sport, even though it was itchy and annoying. 

Here is Daniel taking the bandages off.  Lizza was so nervous about this (so was I – after I took these pictures I had to leave the room).:

Cleaning her ear off.  Her hair was so matted to her head – I think she had been pretty sweaty with all those bandages on for so long.  I’m really glad Daniel is good at things like this – I was still too nervous to look at it.

I love this picture of them.  Daniel is smiling and telling her how great it looks, and she is still panicked that he took the bandages off.  I think she had mixed feelings about the whole thing, and was just feeling emotional.

After a bath.                                                          

It was still pretty bruised and swollen, but we were really happy with the results:

She had her follow-up appointment with the doctor the next day.  After the bandages were taken off, our instructions were to have her wear a wide headband covering her ear for 6 weeks day and night, and then just at night for another month after that. 

She also was supposed to take it easy for the next few weeks, which was hard.

“And I am sad cause I cannot go outside or the pool or being wild”

Now it has been almost 6 weeks, and we are getting excited because this week she gets to go back for another follow-up appointment, and hopefully she can take the headbands off during the day after that.

She really has been a good sport about wearing them, and she always reminds me to put one on quickly after she bathes at night.  I think she looks super cute in them.

Here is what her ear looks like today:

No more elves or trolls around here!