After we were cleared to leave the surgery center on Thursday, Kai slept all the way back to the hotel. Then we settled in for a 2-hour group nap. Kai was drowsy and obviously not feeling well most of the evening. He wasn’t able to keep any food down until about 10 o’clock that night. We gave him Tylenol with codeine on a regular schedule the rest of Thursday and Friday. Friday morning he was mostly back to normal and dying to be rid his purple turban. Our first stop was the doctor’s office where they cut the bandage off and re-dressed the skin graft and new ear canal.
And… here’s the new ear opening! The picture at left shows the arc of the incision line behind the right ear. It also shows the ear canal with a circular sponge filling it. The sponge helps ensure that the new hole and canal remain open; the sponge is also soaked with an antimicrobial or antiseptic solution. The hole is pretty large but, apparently, it’s purposefully that way because the opening will shrink as it heals.
I’ve spared you the gore of the skin graft: to the left of the incision is a 3 x 3 inch square that is covered with a clear plastic dressing that’s stitched in place. To me, it looks like a bloody mess but the doctor assured us it looks worse than it is. The doctor who prepped us likened the skin graft to “a really bad scrape”.
Fortunately, there's a convenient gap between the skin graft area and the behind-the-ear incision
No comments:
Post a Comment