Post-op

We just got back from New Orleans. The rain and the traffic made for a long trip. As his dad said, everything looks great. Dr. Molony took the nasty tape strips off and now we are just waiting for activation day. This time last week he couldn't sit by himself at all. Now he crawls everywhere he wants to go (and some places you don't want him to.) He can also go from crawling to sitting and back by himself. You can no longer put him on the floor with some toys and think he is going to stay there and play. He takes off following you wherever you go. It's amazing how far his gross motor skills have come in just a weeks time. The doctor asked if he was having any balance problems after the surgery and was surprised when I told him it was actually the opposite - all his balance problems cleared up after the surgery.

Everything Looks Great

Landon has just completed is latest checkup and has received a clean bill of health from the Dr. Moloney. He still has a small bit of swelling in the neck area, but it seems to be decreasing on a daily basis.

On another note, Landon began to belly crawl and sit up 2 days after surgery. I am astounded at his progress over the past 4 to 5 days. Last night while I watched LSU beat Flordia again, he was able to sit up own his own from a prone position. It is really exciting to see his progress...

Bouncing Back

It's amazing how fast these babies bounce back from surgery. Landon is pretty much back to his old self again. He does have a lot more separation anxiety - he won't go to anyone else but me right now. He is back to playing on the floor with all his toys - as long as I'm sitting right there with him. Of course the last time he was taken from me they cut his head open so I'm sure it's just a side effect of that. Every day it gets better so he'll be back to his friendly self before long. We gave him the tylenol with codeine the first two days for the pain and then just went to regular tylenol. So far today he hasn't needed anything for the pain - he's been happy and playing all day.
We have noticed a few things that have changed with him since the surgery. He no longer does the scooting on his head with his back arched. He crawls on his tummy with his head up. He also doesn't throw his head back like he did when you hold him. He is doing a lot better with his head control and sitting by himself. The surgery has definitely made a difference in his balance issues.

This is the day after surgery - one of his ears sticks out a little but the other one doesn't.

The first side they did.

The second side. You think they could have at least shaved the same amount. Oh well, it is already starting to grow back so it won't be long.

We're Home!

We just got back in from our stay in New Orleans. Landon was able to have his surgery yesterday - he still had a little fluid in the right ear but the doctor said it wasn't enough to need to cancel. It actually went a lot faster then we thought it would - he was only away from us for 4 hours. We got to pre-op at 6:15 and they took him to the OR at 7:30. At 8:30 we got the message that surgery had just started and at 10:30 Dr. Molony came out and said everything was done and the audiologist had just gone in to do the NRT testing. By 11:30 we were back in recovery with him. It took him most of the day to sleep off the anesthesia (and the small dose of morphine they gave him right after to help until the tylenol had kicked in) He would wake up, take a bottle, and then go right back to sleep. Around 10:00 last night he woke up wanting to play. He kept trying to roll over but couldn't because of the large bandage on his head. We went for his post-op this morning and the doctor took off the big bandage so he just has the tape strips over the incisions. We talked with the audiologist for a minute and she said they got full insertion of the electrodes on both sides and that everything tested perfectly. He was playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake in the office so he is pretty much back to his normal, happy self.

Back in the hotel following surgery - he ended up spending the day in a diaper and towel because he kept soaking through everything after all the IV fluids they gave him.

Leaving the hospital to come home

On the way to his post-op in front of the Cochlear Implant Awareness Month display. Louisiana finally does something to be proud of. They are the first state in the nation to declare October as Cochlear Implant Awareness Month. Landon was the first surgery done during this awareness month and the first simultaneous bilateral CI surgery done.

Keep your fingers crossed!!

We took Landon to the pediatrician for his pre-op today - his surgeon is on vacation this week. We had a little surprise - he has a slight ear infection. He started yesterday with a clear runny nose but seemed to be feeling fine so we were hoping it would go away on its own. They took his temp when we got to the doctors and it was 101 - while he is laughing and playing peek-a-boo with the nurse. His right ear was red with a little fluid so they put him on an antibiotic. They checked his white blood count and said it was normal. As of right now we are still on for surgery. I spoke with the nurse at the doctor's office and she said to go ahead as scheduled (as long as his fever doesn't go any higher). On Monday Dr. Molony would look at it and make a decision one way or the other if he can have the surgery. He hasn't had fever since we left the office this morning so hopefully it will clear up and we can go ahead with the surgery. I thought for sure when I told her there was fluid in his ear she would say we needed to reschedule but she just said we'll see on Monday morning what his ear looks like and as long as he isn't running fever he would probably have the surgery. Like we weren't stressed enough over the surgery now we have to worry if he is even going to have it or not or if we will have to go through all the worry again a few weeks from now.