Mummies, Lorna Doones and Prosthetics

I am sure you are wondering what mummies, Lorna Doone cookies and prosthetics have to do with each other. Well, I will tell you. It all has to do with our day yesterday - and what a crazy day it was! Let me start at the beginning...

A few weeks ago Jonathan had an ear ache. He has had ear trouble in the past (infections, swimmers ear) so we went to Instacare and got it looked at. The doctor took a look at it and immediately said "oh wow - yep, it's definitely infected." So he got an antibiotic and we went home.

A week later, he was almost done with his antibiotic but his ear was still hurting a lot. So we decided there must be something up with his ear, and we went to see an ear nose and throat doctor.

The doctor said that Jonathan had what is called a cholesteatoma. As far as we understand it, it is a type of skin cyst that forms in the ear and starts to eat away at and erode the bones in your ear. If it gets really bad, it can actually eat its way up into the brain (not cool) and damage facial nerves and stuff.

So, we were kind of surprised but so glad to have found the cause to all of his ear troubles, and glad to find it before it got too bad and damaged his hearing much. They did a hearing test and he has a bit of hearing loss in that ear, but nothing too bad.

We were also very glad, now that we found out about this, that Jonathan had not found a new job yet and that we had not moved, because we may have been between jobs and without insurance when we discovered this - in a way it was a little blessing in disguise - or at least it made us realize that the Lord is looking out for us, even if things don't work out exactly as we want.

So, he went the next week and had a CT scan. The results of this were promising - the radiologist said that the bone had only eroded a little bit, nothing too major. He wasn't even sure if it WAS a cholesteatoma (although the doctor was pretty sure it was). The doctor wanted to do surgery to get rid of the cyst and take care of it before it got any worse.

Yesterday was his surgery. My parents were so kind to watch James for the entire day, which helped SO much. We had to be at LDS Hospital at 5:30 in the morning!! Talk about early (well at least for me). We woke up our boy and took him down to my parents' house at quarter to five, and then went to the hospital.

The surgery was scheduled to last about two hours (and was an outpatient surgery). They took him back around 7:15 and I had a grand old time waiting in the family waiting room. It was actually pretty nice, they had free snacks and juice and hot chocolate for the family members. I was so excited when I saw that they had Lorna Doones - after James was born and I had been in labor for about 18 hours, I was STARVING, and the first thing the nurse brought me to eat was Lorna Doones - they tasted SO darn good to me, I have loved them ever since! Lorna Doones and cranberry juice (which is what they brought me to drink) - man, that tasted so good. Sadly, they didn't taste as good as I remembered (I guess that's what a whole day of labor will do to you - ANYTHING would taste good after being that hungry and exhausted!)

So I waited, I ate breakfast in the cafeteria (not too bad, actually) and I sat in the waiting room and read all sorts of magazines, and a book I brought. There were lots of people in the waiting room with me, including a nice-looking older gentleman with a prosthetic arm who kept thinking they were calling his name when instead they were calling "Becky" - it was kind of humorous. When he realized his mistake he said, "I sometimes go by Becky..."

So two hours came and went. I figured it had taken them a little time to put him under and prep him for surgery, but I wasn't sure how long. Three hours came and went and I have to admit I was a little worried! They kept calling people's names, but not mine! My friend with the prosthetic arm thought they called Ralph when they called Dave and stood up again - he again realized his mistake and we exchanged smiles.

Finally, I think it was around 11:00, Jonathan's doctor came in and found me. He seemed a little grim (although, as far as I have seen, he usually seems this way) and started explaining how the surgery went. His number one goal was to get rid of the cyst and all the skin that had grown in his ear. Apparently it was a lot worse than he had originally thought - he said the skin had grown all around his hearing bones.

He went on, and he said "since the number one important task was to get rid of the skin so it won't grow back, I took out two of the hearing bones."

Ok, when he said this I was thinking "WHAT?!? You took OUT his hearing bones??" I couldn't believe it. I wanted to say, "So . . . . did you put them BACK? Can he hear??" I had a small moment of being pretty worried and of freaking out.

But then the doctor told me that he had put in two PROSTHETIC HEARING BONES instead. And I felt much better. But how crazy is that?? (Ha, I tricked you, you thought the post title referred to the man with the prosthetic arm!) My husband pretty much now has a prosthetic ear! We didn't see that one coming at all. He said that once he recovers for about six weeks, his hearing ought to be "pretty darn good" (his exact words). Whew, that was a relief, except for the fact that I still can't believe that he REMOVED my husband's hearing bones. Wow, how crazy. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Some other crazy things - the facial nerve runs right through that area of the ear, I guess, so that was a big risk of the cholesteatoma and of the surgery. But the doctor said that it was fine (what a relief - I like seeing my husband smile! Plus he's got a really impressive frowny face that he makes - I cannot frown like that for the life of me, it is really a talent that he has got!) Also, there are some tasting nerves (don't know the actual name) and one of them (there are four, apparently) got kind of stretched out, so his tasting might be a little off for awhile. In fact, just as I am writing this, Jonathan was telling me how good his Jell-O tasted that I made him. I said "good, I'm glad! It is strawberry-banana flavored." He said, "oh really? I thought it was cherry..."

So, anyway, the doctor is hopeful that he got all of the skin, but we still need to keep an eye on it and get it checked again in about a year to make sure it is not growing back.

So as you can probably guess, this turned into kind of a major surgery and was a bit risky. We are incredibly grateful that we discovered this problem when we did, or else it would have gotten much worse. I don't even like to think about what could have happened! We are hoping and praying that his hearing will be alright and that the cyst will not grow back. We would really appreciate your prayers.

Anyway, I finally got to see Jonathan and he had an awesome bandage all around his head. We decided that maybe we ought to re-think our Halloween costumes and go as mummies. He was a bit loopy as the orderly pushed him down the hall in the gurney and was saying some funny things in a really low voice. He was SO sleepy and was pretty nauseated. The drive home was quite exciting, seeing as how he felt sick whenever he moved.

But, we are home, and he is feeling a lot better after some pain medications and a good night's sleep. As is Gibbons family tradition when someone is sick, I made him a comfy "place" on the couch and he got a lot of rest. My cute visiting teacher brought us dinner and we were so grateful. We are supposed to take his bandage off today (I have to admit I am nervous), and we are going to have a fun few days just relaxing, watching movies and playing the Wii.

Here is his fabulous mummy garb. We think this has great Halloween possibilities. Or, we could use the hospital gown that we ended up bringing home (I wonder if they'll charge us? Oh well, can't be too expensive, especially compared to prosthetic ears!) and go as hospital patients. Anyway, here is my man all bandaged up. I am so proud of him, he had a rough time but is doing great.


James was looking at his Daddy kind of strangely when he got home. My parents had him the entire day and brought him home around bedtime, along with some "twirl town toys" -another Gibbons family tradition for sickies: my Dad often goes to the grocery store and picks up what he, for some reason, calls a "twirl town toy" for the sickie. These "twirl town toys" were a metal detector (man, my Dad sure knows how to buy gifts for Jonathan) and a movie. Thanks, guys! You are so sweet.

Here is a picture of James looking at his Daddy and wondering what is going on -