Well it's 12:30 A.M and for some reason I can't sleep. This does not happen to me very often. I have always said I am one of those people that can sleep anywhere, anytime, as long as I am comfortable. But tonight, not so much. So I decided I would update. We are all doing well. Mighty Mouth had what I hope is her last ear surgery on her left ear today. I like to refer to it as the "saga of the left ear" You see when she was about 3 our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric ENT because she had chronic fluid in her ears. Hardly ever an infection but almost always fluid that we kept hoping would go away. I know now that this surely contributed to her speech delay and consequent 5 years of speech therapy. The ENT recommended tubes and since we had been down that road before with Soccer Girl (2 sets of tubes, 2 sinus surgeries)(oh, and do let me add that these Ear, Nose and Throat issues run on the Englishman's side not mine)we knew it was the right thing to do. So for two years she had the tubes and all was well. Then at two years out the Dr was quite suprised that the tubes had not fallen out. We decided to wait 6 mos and then if they didn't come out on their own like they are suppose to he would go in and get them. Of course no easy solution those buggers hadn't budged so surgery number 2 took place to remove the tubes. We then had follow ups over the course of the next year waiting for the holes where the tubes were to close up. Well guess what? Yup, you guessed it they didn't close. So then surgery number three took place to put a synthetic patch over the holes to close them up. Well, right ear being cooperative closed beautifully. Left ear being stubborn did not, the patch didn't "stick" so to speak so surgery number 4 was scheduled for left ear. Surgery number 4 was called a "tympanoplasty" where her surgeon took a small piece of cartilage from her outer ear and grafted it over the hole. The graft was successful BUT eventually she developed what they called a "wet ear" where the eardrum became inflamed as an immune response (didn't quite understand that but when the Dr explained it, it made sense) So today surgery number 5 took place. In this one he debreeded (did I spell that right) the area and scraped away the inflamed tissue so new healthy tissue could grow. It went very well and she did great. He seemed very confident that this should take care of it so that's what I am going with. I am hopeful and also confident that the "left ear saga" has come to a close.
Looking forward to Saturday where the girls have a softball game against their rival team. They played last night and did so well. This rival team is undefeated and our girls would love to take that title away from them. Wish us luck.
Well, it is now 1 am so I guess I will go back to bed and see if sleep will come...
Goodnight!!!!!
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