Oliver eventually came out of surgery at 7.30, a whole 6 hours after he went in.
The doctor talked to me for about 20 minutes about how it had gone. I tried to take it all in, but please forgive me if I get things wrong or I get confused. Oliver underwent a right tympanomastoidectomy. The doctor said it was much worse than he expected, hence why it took so long. He is fairly confident he got all the cholesteatoma out, but only time will tell. The growth had managed to get very big behind his ear drum in his middle ear. It has destroyed a lot of the oscilles (bones) in his middle ear. Luckily it has not reached his cochlea. This means his hearing nerve is intact, hopefully. He has put a layer of clear film over the cochlea, packed it, them put another layer of film, then packed his ear canal with dissolvable wadding. He thinks that this is a congenital cholesteatoma, meaning it has probably been there for a while. Here are some delightful photos he took while operating
This one shows the mastoid bone behind the ear canal. This is usually honeycombed in appereance. The white intestine like looking stuff is the cholesteatoma.
The white mass in this photo on the left is the front of the masteoid bone, before the previous photo. The area to the right is the ear canal. The white bits you can see down the ear canal is the cholesteatoma.
Yuck, right.... This is only a small amount of what was on his ear. Oliver came up to recovery about 7.30pm. He really struggled to come round. Didn't help they were still giving him morphine, as when he came round he was complaining of pain....
When the anesthetist came back and started talking about admitting him for the night, I knew we had to get him moving. The recovery nurses were awesome, and gave him some sprite and ice chips to get him going, We eventually managed to get him dressed. I had loads of forms to sign and they have me a prescription for antibiotics and super strong pain killers. We were the last people in the out patients department, and the whole building. The security guard even helped us out.
The nurse had warned me that he may be sick on the way home, and later in the evening, due to the anesthetic and morphine. Low and behold, he was sick 200 meters from home in the car. He got about 10% of it in the sick bag, the rest all over my front seat.....
We got home about 9.30pm, and got Oliver in to the house and on the sofa. Paul went out to get the prescription, and just made it to CVS to get his prescription.
We set Oliver's mattress up on the floor in our bedroom. We carried him to bed about 10.30. We went to bed shortly after. It was a very hard day for all of us, mentally and physically. I really feel for those who have children who need regular hospital treatment. It is so draining.
Oliver was sick in the night, and had quite a disturbed nights sleep, regularly asking if it was time to get up yet.
Isaac was up his usual early time this morning, and straight in to check on Oliver. Isaac was not keen to go to school again today, but the thought of daddy taking him and picking him helped entice him. Oliver ate a hearty large breakfast, and has mostly lazed on the sofa today.
With the help of his little brothers. He hasn't slept though, which I wish he had. He is now sitting here watching the NASCAR, though bed is coming soon.....
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