Healing Beautifully

Aiden's done a wonderful job with recovering from his surgery. He was still down a bit the day after surgery but by day three (last Friday), he was 100% Aiden again. For about four days though he slept very little throughout the night. All we could attribute it to is the pain from the magnet and the incision. I remember when my grandpa got his pacemaker, we could see it protruding quite a bit from his chest and everytime he raised his arms it would hurt him. I'm sure it was similar for Aiden when he was trying to sleep.

Surprisingly, Aiden left his bandage on the whole two days! I couldn't wait to wash his head! I was so nervous to take the bandage off, yet anxious to see how it all looked. He was still pretty swollen and his poor little ears were sticking out from it all! I couldn't believe how much the magnets protruded and hoped that it was more swelling than anything. They made an incision a little over an inch behind each ear. Here are some pictures from the day I took his bandage off (last Friday - two days after surgery).

Left ear - the incision/stitching was done more behind the ear, but the magnet definitely protrudes more on this ear.

Right ear - the incision was further out and bigger. You can barely see the magnet on this ear, even just two days after surgery.

Here he is playing with a balloon his TOD brought by. Look at those ears!Just another ear shot and a great messy face!

Now a week later, his incisions are healing quite well and the swelling has really gone down. As Dr. Niparko told us the day of surgery, he was able to fit the magnet on the right side snug into place, so it doesn't protrude too much. But the left side is a different story. The doctor said he had a harder time finding a snug place. He didn't want the magnets at totally different levels on each side, so the magnet on the left protrudes quite a bit. But when Aiden gets some more hair, you won't be able to see it as much.

These pictures are from last night - one week and one day from his surgery.

Right ear - can barely see incision anymore but WOW can you see that magnet! For all you experienced CI mommies ... is this normal?

Left ear - can still see quite a bit of the incision, but it's healing very nicely. I know this picture isn't as close up, but you can barely even see the outline of this magnet!

Ears going back to normal .... thank God!

I've been having a hard time with the thought of Aiden not having any sound right now. At least before, I knew he was getting something from his hearing aids. My baby's not getting any sound right now, and we've seen changes in him. He doesn't "talk" near as much as he used to. In fact yesterday he made a combination of two sounds and I ran over to him smiling and clapping and yelling "Yay!". I was shocked to hear it. All we get now are moans, and even those are few. He's been very quiet. He also isn't clapping his hands like he used to. After everything we said to him he would always clap and we'd yell "Yay!" Not anymore ... today he did take my hands though and clap them together and smile. Shows us just how much he was getting from his hearing aids. We know though, that he's going to get even more from his cochlear implants and we can't wait for what's to come!

Congratulations Aiden! We can't wait for you to hear with your "new ears"!