Anguished Discussions Over the Following Months (May 2010 - Dec 2010). This all seems like a blur to me now. I thought that if we were planning on doing the surgery, we should get our heads around it sooner rather than later because it's nice if you do it while the kid is young and having microtia doesn't become a defining part of his or her personality. That's just my perspective; there are lots of other opinions, too.
I definitely heard a lot, such as: (1) wait until the technology and techniques have improved, (2) wait until Medpor is more proven, (3) don't do anything, it's all too risky and not worth the potential upside given that his hearing is OK in his left ear and his face is so cute and his little ear is cute also. We had lots of family and friends who hooked us up with their ENT friends. Honestly, most ENTs - even world-renown ones - don't know that much about microtia aural atresia unless they specialize in that area. Therefore, unsolicited advice and "Did you call uncle so-and-so?"s were usually well intended attempts at helping me that were actually time consuming and not very helpful.
In the end, I ended up scheduling the appointments for surgeries so that we had those options, but my husband and his family were fairly opposed to doing the surgeries. I, too, was really concerned - as there are significant risks. Even up to the night before the canalplasty surgery, we were in tears thinking about subjecting our child to those risks. It is not an easy decision.
