DAVIS SURGERY

I'm happy to say that the surgeon said the surgery went very well and is very optimistic about Davis' surgery on Thursday. The surgeon removed Davis' stapes bone and replaced it with a micro prosthesis.

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The stapes is the third of the three little hearing bones in the middle ear that transmit sound vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear fluid so that we can hear. We hear when sound vibrations set the EARDRUM in motion. The eardrum, in turn, activates the first middle ear bone, the MALLEUS. It, in turn, sets the second middle ear bone, the INCUS, in motion. It, in turn, causes the third middle ear bone, the STAPES, to vibrate. The stapes sets the inner ear fluids in motion which excites the hearing nerve to carry the sound on to the brain. It is by this mechanism that we hear.

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So, by replacing Davis' stapes bone with the prosthesis, this will allow sound vibrations to be transmitted properly to the inner ear fluids for hearing. The surgeon feels strongly that Davis will hear normally when his ear heals from surgery.

Davis was very brave and excited for surgery. I took this picture the night before his surgery. My brother and sister-in-law were very generous and let Davis and I stay with them for a couple of nights. We had a great time visiting with them and Davis loved playing with his cousins. Thanks guys! Here's a picture of Davis after they put in his IV. He was very interested in everything the nurses were doing. He actually watched them put in his IV and thought it was cool (except for the blood).
When the nurse came to take him to the operating room, she put this lovely hair net on him. He couldn't understand why he had to wear it, but was a good sport about it.

While Davis was in surgery (about an hour) - it was SNOWING outside. It was so beautiful and relaxing.

When the nurse came to take me to the recovery room, Davis was still OUT! There was no waking him. When he would wake up for a few seconds, he'd say some crazy stuff. First it was, "Mom, why are there two of you?" Then he asked me what year it was. The nurse overheard him and said, "You haven't been asleep that long Davis." It was pretty funny.

Now for recovery, he has some pretty strict rules. He's supposed to sneeze with his mouth open, he's not supposed to blow his nose too hard, he's not supposed to do anything to raise his heart rate, basically anything that can disrupt his eardrum from re-sealing (they lifted his eardrum and "flapped" it over to get to his inner ear and it needs to re-attach). He's also not supposed to get his ear wet for a month.

Right now he has dissolvable packing in his ear canal (for 10-14 days) and a cotton ball over that. And even with all that, Davis already says that he hears differently. We're really praying that when he's all healed (about 2 months) that he will have normal hearing.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.