Well, we are slowly but surely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with Jake. We went to Jake's 2nd ENT visit since having his surgery. It has been approximately one month since Jake had his surgery. Joel and I were both terrified going to this appointment, as we are, every appointment just because we don't know what we will be hearing. I think, no I know for a fact, that Joel and I have gotten much stronger about this situation and handling it much better now that we have had since June 11th, to absorb it all. So we go into the visit and the doctor gets his tools to look into Jake's ear and our stomach's just sink at that very instant. The doctor is looking around inside his ear, and says, "things look good!" Okay, Joel and I can breathe again! As the parents having to take good care and extra precautions with an inner eardrum that is having to heal on a very ACTIVE 4 year old, is very stressful! So hearing those words from the doctor at that moment....life was GOOD! As parents, we have done well, for now. Maybe we can lift some of the doubt that has been weighing on us that we were potentially doing something wrong. I actually, a few days beforehand, was blowing Jake's nose something we all do with our kids. Well, Joel had brought to my attention that blowing your nose can actually put pressure inside the ear and that may have not been good for Jake's eardrum. I was so paranoid and mad at myself, because I should have thought about that before I made him blow his nose. And even a few days before that, I was watching Joel put in Jake's ear plug so that we could take him a bath, and I said, "Joel, you may not want to press down on the ear that hard the doctor said not to press down too hard." That was probably not the best thing to have told him, as now I made him paranoid. So we say things have gotten much easier and have now been absorbed a bit better, but as parents wanting to do the best thing for our children, we have become paranoid about doing just that. So to continue with our ENT appointment. We moved to the room that has the microscope to look way into the ear. The doctor had to scrape the inside of his ear, which was not pleasant for Jake, but he did GREAT! The doctor said that the absorbable packing was still sitting on the graft and when he blew air into the ear he could see the eardrum move, which is a good sign that the graft is taking! The doctor wants us to continue to put drops in his ear twice a day for 10 days to see if it absorbs the packing so that the doctor will not have to scrape at the next visit again. I'm hoping and praying that he will not have to do that again! The doctor also said that he wants to see us again in 3 weeks and if all looks good, it will have been 7 weeks since surgery, and he will perform a hearing test at this visit. So this hearing test will be a true test to see if things really worked and if the doctor made the right decision by not touching those bones. Like I said, we would not be where we are today if we did not faith. So I continue to have faith that regardless of the outcome, Jake will be fine. Please continue to pray that this hearing test gives us the miracle of restored hearing, that Jake will not have to have his ear scraped, and that the graft has healed the way it should. We will continue to update you on Jake's progress. Thanks again for thinking of our family!
Lots of Love,
Joel, Annette, Jake, and Ayden
* Below are pics of some of the fun things that we have done lately*
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| Finger painting with our cousin AJ |
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| I love the shaving cream on my hands! |
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| The Dallas Zoo |
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| We love the Zoo! |
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| Feeding the Ducks |
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| St. Ann's Carnival |
