Post-op Visit

At the post-op visit on Tuesday, the doctor clarified for us exactly what was going on in Kai's new ear canal. The picture below helps illustrate. The sponge is what you can see from the outside (shown in an earlier post). Behind the sponge is a lot more packing: a thick layer of gel foam, a silastic disk, and more gel foam. All of this packing keeps the ear canal open and the new membrane in place. (Originally, I thought stitches were used.)

At Kai's 3-week post-op visit (around Feb 12), a Portland doctor will remove the sponge, the first layer of gel foam, and the silastic disk. The last layer of gel foam will remain for another two weeks.

The doctor also *tried* to remove the dressing on the skin graft. He snipped the stitches that were originally holding it in place and removed the tape. Unfortunately, the dressing had slipped and the tape was stuck to part of the wound. Needless to say, removing the tape caused a lot of tears. Also, the dressing wouldn't come up even after the tape and stitches were removed--it had adhered to the raw skin. So... we get to soak it off. Ugh.