Surgery #2 Update and Elli Pre-School Visit

I will post pictures tomorrow. I forget my camera!
Surgery #2 was not a success. I was SO much more emotional before this surgery and realized that for me, not knowing what to expect, is better than, knowing what to expect. Briggs was great!! He was so smiley and went away with the anesthesiologist with no problem and he recovered SO much better than the first surgery (they started feeding him in the recovery room, which made a world of difference). He had his first smile only a few hours after surgery this time around. The hard part is when they take him away and I have no control. I feel like I'm going to throw up the entire time he is gone and I just want him back, in my arms, knowing he is safe.
Dr. Lusk was 95% done with the operation and was drilling the hole in the mastoid when he found fluid. Briggs has never had an ear infection. He had no symptoms of one either, no fever, no tugging at his ears, sleeping through the night, no problems eating. Dr. Lusk always looks in the ear before starting the operation and he saw no fluid (although he doesn't have the high tech equipment to see really, really deep in the O.R.). Dr. Lusk has done over 500 implants and this is only the 2nd time this has happened to him. He called a doctor in Florida to consult and the doctor in Florida agreed that it was not wise to place the implant. You never want to put an implant in when there is fluid present. If the fluid is in fact an infection then that infection would never go away with all the antibiotics, it would take over his implant and we'd eventually have to remove it, get rid of the infection and re-implant about 6 months later. Although I'm DREADING another surgery, this was the best for Briggs. Dr. Lusk did place a tube to drain that fluid and we have him on an ear drop and antibiotic.
So Briggs basically went through a 4 hour operation for nothing. Briggs did have a bad cold a few weeks ago but it had definitely subsided a good week before his operation.
So we go back Tuesday, May 19th for surgery #3 to place the left implant. The good news, Dr. Lusk has most of the operation completed so it won't the full 4 hours. It should be more like 2 hours. We see him next week for his post-op and then we'll go back the week before surgery to check the fluid.
Please pray the fluid goes away and Briggs can have the implant and we can be done with surgery once and for all!!
Dr. Lusk does surgery every Monday and he has a C.I. surgery scheduled every Monday until July!! That blew my mind.

Now on to Elli... Elli is turning 4 in May and she will be starting pre-school this fall. Elli is going to be a hearing peer model for the hearing impaired pre-school kids at Prescott Elementary. Prescott has a hearing impaired pre-school program which starts at age 3 and that is where Briggs will go when he is 3 and 4 and he should be with his normal hearing peers by age 5 and ready to start main stream kindergarten at the elematery school in our neighborhood. So yesterday we took Elli there, and Nick and I observed a class. The school is on the other side of town for us so we wanted to be sure it would be the right fit for Elli. We think it's the perfect scenerio b/c she will be in a class with all kids who have C.I.'s or hearing aids which will give her exposure to other kids with hearing impairment. It will give Nick and I a feel of what the program Briggs will be in when he turns 3. Elli did AWESOME!! She LOVED it and she fit right in and played with all the kids. It was so neat to see other kids with C.I.'s and watch them talk the ears off of the teachers. Literally the teacher had to keep telling them it was not their turn to talk. One little boy was being pretty onery and he purposely slide off his chair and was looking at the floor and the teacher said, Isaac, you need to sit in your chair and pay attention. He said, I know I'm trying. Other than seeing the C.I.'s and hearing aids, you would have no idea any of these kids had hearing impairment! I was very amazed at how organized the class and the kids were and Elli couldn't wait to go back. We're so fortunate to have a program like this available to us!

We go back next Wednesday for Briggs post-op and they'll do more sound booth testing on his implanted ear. It's also his 1st birthday next Wednesday!! I cannot believe he is almost 1!!