Robby's ear is out!

Robby's ear is out is what one of Robby's classmates said the first day Robby came to school with his ear uncovered. I thought that was funny. The kids all looked at it and them that was that. A couple of them said they couldn't touch Robby (they had to be careful). I told them they could touch him, hug him etc; they just couldn't hit him across the side of the head. They thought that was funny. He is doing really well. His cup has been off for a week now. The ear looks really good. I have to put ointment on it every night. He complained about it hurting the first few nights. It no longer hurts him to have the oinment put on. He says he can hear better since he got his new ear. I am not sure if that is because the sound is funneled to his ear canal better or if it relates to the fact that Dr. R cleaned his canal out really good. Dr. R said their was a lot of gunk in his ear before surgery. Because the canal is not a natural canal, his ear doesn't natural push the ear wax out and clean itself. He has to have it cleaned by an ENT periodically and it had been a while since he had that done.
The scalp is looking better. He had a lot of crusty scab stuck in his hair. We are working on soaking that and getting it out. Not an experience he likes. These pitures were taken four weeks after surgery.

One more day

Robby's ear is still covered by the cup. When I look at the pictures I took last Friday, it seems so surreal. He has an ear....I am just not used to that. Because I don't see it everyday, it hasnt really hit me that the ear is actually there. He is so looking forward to being able to take the cup off and keep it off tomorow night. His classmates are anxious for Friday to come so they can see his new ear. They are hatching eggs in their class and the estimated hatch day is today or tomorrow. They have been counting down the days to the chicks and know that Robby gets to show them his new ear at about the same time. Chicks and ears, lots of excitement for the class

what a difference a week makes!

We took the stuff off of Robby's ear tonight for it's second cleaning. Wow, it's an amazing difference from last week! The ear is much less swollen and the stiches are less pronounced. I was amazed when I saw the difference. This was the first time Daddy and Emily had seen Robby's new ear other than in pictures. Emily said it was 'earish', which, if you know Emily seems like such a natural thing for her to say. When Robby looked in the mirror, he got a big grin on his face. The ear was still quite tender when I washed it. The skin graft on his head looked very good as well. It hurt when I first took the guaze off, but then was fine. He has one more week of wearing his ear cup and hat. Then he has to wear a special ear mold at night for four weeks.

security issues

Security at LAX was interesting. First, traveling with a seven year old does not qualify you for the family lane or priority seating on the plane. The kids have to be under 5. So here I was trying to juggle our shoes, backpacks, coats, computer and carryons in order to get them in the bins for the scanners. The TSA agent looked at Robby and wanted to know what the whole hat/cup thing was....forget how he worded it. I said Robby had surgery the week before. The TSA said he would have to undergo further screening. He sent Robby to this, for lack of a better term, holding cell. Rob had to stand there all by himself while I gathered up all our stuff. Of course, I hadn't put the computer in its own bin so that and everything it was with had to be separated and run through again. They then used a hand wand on Robby and I lifted the cup up so they could see where the surgery was. When I did that, the blue covering over the ear lifted as well, so the TSA guy got a look at the 'Frankenstein' ear. I don't think he was thrilled with that, but it serves him right for making a kid wait like that. I know he was doing his job, but Robby didn't understand what was happening and I think he was a little worried.

Itchy

Robby is doing great. He started back at school yesturday. The kids were all excited to see him. The first thing one of the kids said to him was "cool hat". He is no longer having pain, but at times the itching is really bad. Tonight he was having trouble sleeping because his ear was driving him crazy with its itching. I know it is the stiches and the healing process, but it doesn't make it any easier for a seven year old to endoure the itching. As a side note, he lost another tooth yesturday. That means he is missing his two top center teeth and one on either side of his two adult teeth on the bottom (the two center ones are adult). crazy 7 year old smil.

pictures

Here are the promised pictures. Like I said the ear is very swollen and not the prettiest thing. But still it is a really cool thing to see. If you look at his ear, you can see the different parts. The ear lobe is his original "liite ear", the top part is the skin graft. On the picture from the back you can see a thin line right at the rim of the ear, that is the full thickness graft from his tummy. The bandage came off the skin graft area by his tummy. It looks really good. A nice thin 'line' scar that will not be noticable once the healing is done.

It's an ear!

We saw the doctor this morning and he 'opened the present'. I will admit it was very odd to see this ear on my son's head, and very exciting at the same time. All things considered it looked great. A little Frankenstienish due to the stitches and the swelling. It is definitely ear shaped, it is just swollen and bruised. He has three different areas of skin that were stitched together; his original little ear, a skin graft from his head and another one from his groin area. He will have to continue to wear the cup over his ear for two more weeks. Then he has a special molded form he will wear at night for six more weeks. Robby's skin graft on his head actually looked worse than the ear. It was a rectangle slightly bigger than a deck of cards. The doctor said that area was a single layer graft. The best way to describe it would be it is similar to a skinned knee where just the top couple layers of skin are gone. In other words the graft looked like a bloody mess. Not actively bleeding, but fairly bright red from having the dressing removed and the area washed. Because it was only the top layer, there will be no trouble with the hair growing back. Actually you could see a fresh growth of hair in the graft area. Robby was excited to see his ear. He says it looks kind of gross and dirty. He does understand that it will look better as time goes by.
Then we began the journey home. As I write this we are on the airplane and anxiously awaiting landing in Columbus. Robby missed his sister Rachael, who is also his best friend. We are both looking forward to seeing everyone and spending time with them. I will post more picutes this weekend.

Chinatown 2

Robby wanted to go back to Chinatown today and it sounded good to me too. We returned to a couple of the same shops, but mainly explored a different section. Robby got some snacks to bring home to his kindegarten class, and we bought some more gifts for the family. We forgot to get the bakery items we were going to eat for breakfast in the morning. We are bummed. Another great meal of fried rice and dumplings. Robby is a dumbpling fanatic and orders them whenever he sees them on the menure. I guess I will have to start having them more often at home.
After Chinatown it was back to the hotel for packing (I can barely get the suitcases closed) and more go fish, marbles and cartoons. I am becoming an expert at Yu Gi O and Ben Ten etc.

A present

Robby has a gift from Dr. Reinisch that is nothing short of amazing. Under Robby's nike cap is a plastic cup covering bandages covering a new ear. An ear we have yet to see. It has been seven days since his surgery. I look at Robby and am reminded of a present under the Christmas tree with a tag that says 'do not open until Dec 25th' Only for us, it says 'do not open until May 13'. Tomorrow morning at 7am we will see Dr, Reinisch. He will take off all the bandages and we will see Robby's new ear for the first time. What a moment that will be for both Robby and me. Our God is an amazing God for giving Dr. Reinisch the ability to do the surgery and for allowing us the opportunity to have it done.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

We went to Simi Valley today and saw the R. Reagan museum. I found it facinating, but Robby was quite bored most of the time. We saw an exact Replica of the Oval Office, Pres. Reagan's Air Force One and Marine One. Several interesting displays included the suite he was wearing when he was shot, his saddle and boots, various gifts from dignitaries around the world and a piece of the Berlin Wall. There is also a 50 foot replica of the whitehouse that is like a really accurate, cool dollhouse. The museum also includes his gravesight. The museum is going through a major renovation in preparation for Reagans's 100th birthday celebration next year. It will have a lot more interactive areas and displays. I would love to go back and see it. I can see why he loved the area so much. The views in the valley are beautiful. It is so peaceful and serene. It must have been very relaxing to go to the ranch and excape the craziness that is Washington DC. He was an incredible man and did much to be admired for.

pictures!

at least for the time being I am able to post pictures again. I went back and edited some post to add pictures.

relaxing

I mentioned in an earlier post about the bilingual menue. We ate at a Korean resturant today. The menue was in Korean, English and Spanish and pictures for those of us who still needed help. We had some wonderful noodles with black bean sauce: a new Korean favorite. Gotta find a recipie. The other dishes include water dumplings (steamed), somekind of pickled veggie (yellow), pickles and a soft custard of some sort. Other than that, it was a lazy day of walking around the neighborhood and relaxing in the hotel room. Lots of 'boy' cartoons.

Chinatown

A great day in Chinatown on Sunday. As a drove into the area and saw the Chinese style architecture and writing, I felt something relax. Not the kind of relaxing you feel when you have been anxious and suddenly feel safe. The kind of relaxing you feel when you come home. I felt at ease and like I belonged here. I love the Chinese culture and people. Chinatown has a relly nice 'tourist' area with lots of shops to buy Chinese items. Robby and I did some nice shopping. They also have a lot of shops that cater to the local Chinese population. We did shopping there too. Robby got some good snacks, but no fish jerky. Yea, it is like beef jerky only made with fish. He likes it. It is not bad, just odd to our American minds. It was fun to walk through the medicine shops filled with the herbs of traditional Chinese medicine. It smelled so good. I wish I knew what some of them were used for. I think there is a lot of good stuff in the traditional medicines of the East. We had a wonderful lunch of noodles with beef, chicken, pork, squid, crab and shrimp. All for 9.99. Yum. Robby said he wants to go back to Chinatown before we leave. I wish there was a hotel there. I would love to stay in Chinatown and be able to do lots of exploration within walking distance of the hotel.
Robby continues to improve. He complaines less about his skin grafts hurting and about the itching. It is still painful if anything gets bumps, but he had no problem walking around Chinatown and less trouble getting comfortable and sleeping at night. I am so thakful to God for the quick healing Robby is experiencing.

friends and fun

Yesturday we spent the day with Reyes, Natalie and Grace. We met them when we went to China to adopt Rachael. Grace and Rachael are fromt he same orphanage. They are my kind of people. How I wished they lived closer. It was so nice to be able to visit with them and talk. Robby had a ball playing with Grace. She is so adorable. They looked really cute together.
On the way to their house, about an hours drive with no traffic, I saw a snow capped mountain. Now my midwestern brain can't wrap itself around the fact that Southern California has snow in May! I'm sorry, that midwest brain says it should be sunny and every one who isn't a super well dressed celebrity in designer clothes should be running around in bikinis with long flowing blonde hair. (ok, not the muscel bound guys. they can wear trunks). Seriously the snow in May did surprise me. This little rant, or whatever you call it, makes me wonder what people in California think of those of us who live in the mid-west.
One further note on Robby. He slept really well last night, not surprising after how hard he played. However, he has one period where he woke up and was wimpering because his ear hurt, was itchy and his cap was hot. He fussed and couln't get comfortable for about 10 minutes and then went back to sleep.