Molly's hearing

We are home and everyone is happy to be in their own beds.  It's about 110 degrees here in Tucson so it's going to be inside days for a while.

Molly is doing well and she's getting tired of me saying at different distances "Can you hear me now?".  Even with the packing in, she can hear much better, it's remarkable.  I'm really looking forward to her first audio-gram in about a month and a half.

Her pre-op ear.

and the new canal...

The skin graft site is healing as expected.  We were told it would be like a bad skinned knee and that's just how it looks.  She has a bit of gauze stuck near the bottom and we're just going to let that come out when it's ready.  The steri-strips behind her new canal will also just fall off when ready.  We're going to attempt to get some warm water in her skin graft site and see how she responds.

 

We're also doing antibiotic ear drops twice a day to keep the packing moist and expanded.

Leaving LA

Molly's post-op checkup went OK, she cried as the doctor trimmed away the sponge in her ear, but she made it through, then we got to talk with Dr Roberson who said everything was looking good.

We then left for LA to see Rob and Adrianna for a few days.  We did the beach, Santa Monica Pier, Third Street Promenade and saw some old friends that were also in town to see Rob.  Wes, Marlee and Randy Booden had just arrived in town Thursday.  We had dinner at Robby's house the last three nights and had a great time.  The kids sure miss him and our old mini dachshund Charlie Brown.

The kids had a great time on the pier with all the rides, Molly got to do almost all of them as well.  We then went to Mother's Beach in Marina Del Ray for a little quiet beach time.

Back to sweltering Tucson! 110 temps there since we left.

Off to San Francisco

We went to a local park for a bit of relaxing, sat at a beach and watched the tide push us up the beach.  Planes flying low into SFO was interesting to watch as well.

We went to IKEA for lunch, yum meatballs!  Then off to CEI to have Molly's bandages removed.  Boy it's a good thing we came into the office to do this.  We had the option of taking it off ourselves, but the spot where they took her skin graft was still quite bloody and they had to put a bandage back on.  Everything is normal they say, just needs a little more time to begin healing.

We went back to the hotel around 4pm and realized that we were supposed to have already checked out.  We had our schedule off by a day and we were due in the bed and breakfast in San Francisco.  So we rushed and packed up, everybody yelling at each other, ok, mainly Katie and I grumping at each other.  But we made it to SF and got settled in.

We're off to explore Golden Gate Park tomorrow.

All done

Molly's surgery is over and we're relaxing at the hotel. 

She's doing very well and has returned to her former glory.  She's a little more tired than usual but otherwise fine.  She slept most of the afternoon and then we went out to dinner to BJ's Brewhouse.  She ate well and then we went to Toys-R-Us for a little shopping spree for all three kids.

We're settling Molly down for a good night sleep, and then back to CEI for a follow up appointment to remove the outer bandages.  More photos to come!

Time to be late!

We arrived at 6:30am at the Waverly Surgery Center.  Molly's surgery was actually scheduled at 7:00am so we were supposed to arrive at 6:00am.  Office mixup is all, everything is good.  I'm filling out paperwork, Erin has taken Molly back and they should be underway shortly.

Molly's anesthesiologist left a message last night, here's part of what was transcribed by Vonage "I need a drink after midnight."  I listened to the voicemail, what he actually said was "..nothing to eat or drink after midnight".  Ah good times, good times.

The day before surgery

We met with Dr Roberson and his staff today to talk about Molly's surgery tomorrow.  She had an audiogram and then we spoke with the coordinator to go over specifics.  Everybody was very nice there, we really felt welcome and comfortable with everyone.

As we were getting ready to leave, we were told that someone had left a gift for Molly, the Givens family left Molly a present!  Brennan Givens had an appointment yesterday and bought Molly a present.  Kim Givens and my wife Erin have been communicating back and forth and Kim has really been a big help understanding what will be happening during Molly's appointments and after care.

Thanks Brennan, Molly loved her presents and is sharing with her big sister Katie!

The day before we leave

Everyone is excited for our California trip, especially Molly.  I've tried to plan as many things as I can during our trip up.  I want to maximize the activities before surgery.  After surgery everything will happen at Molly's pace.  This whole trip is about her.

We're going to be driving to Palm Springs Monday night, and swimming in the pool as much as we can.  Molly's pool time will be severely limited after surgery for a while.  Tuesday morning we're driving on to Palo Alto.  We're taking the pacific coast highway up from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz or so.  We're going to try and stop for interesting things along the way, tide pools, sea lions, etc. 

Yesterday we went to a friends pool party.  Once Molly got comfortable with the people she didn't know (took about 10-15 minutes), she ruled the pool/hot tub.  She declared them 'all her friends' and was very upset when we left the party.

Anyhow, we are almost ready to be on the road.  It's more than a little scary.