 |
| At the Musee Rodin last year |
 |
| With Dexter in February |
To give you an idea of how this goes, it's now several years later and I haven't visited this site in years. It was really fun to review what we went through - it seems like a lifetime ago.
Some updates...
Ben is now a confident, sweet, handsome and athletic nine year old who is a dream kid - gets good grades, enjoys reading, is a school prefect, loves every sport possible and has an enormous heart. We rarely talk about his ear. When he really wants to hear you, he turns his left ear toward you. If it's a movie, he puts on his BAHA. He doesn't usually think to ask for it, so I'll approach him and ask him if he wants his BAHA, and he nods. He does this whether or not his friends are present.
 |
| Two years ago when he was seven |
At school, he doesn't wear his BAHA - he does sit in the front row in every class. Most of his friends are aware that his "ear had surgery." He went through a few years when whenever he was in a new situation (e.g., new soccer team, new class in school, etc.) there were some kids who would point to his ear and tell him his ear was ugly. But he's used to it, he has his good friends, and he has said to me, "I'm proud of my ear."
We moved to Asia a couple of years ago, when Ben was in second grade. We entered mid-year through the school year, and my kids didn't know anyone in the school (or the country!) They made friends immediately, and like in the US, some friendships stuck and others didn't. Ben has a handful of good friends - all sports jocks like him. It helps that he really enjoys and is good at sports. If you're on the basketball court, soccer field or swimming pool, no one cares what your ear looks like.
 |
| In March of this year |
How does his ear look?
It looks fantastic. I'm still always worried that the frame will break again - especially since Ben is so active and involved in every sport possible: soccer, baseball, tennis, water polo, swimming, basketball, downhill skiing, running, golf, etc. But since that time that it broke a number of years ago, it's been fine. We live in a tropical climate, so I slather the sun block on his ears every time we go outside. Also, I'm really "aware" when there might be mosquitos out there. These are the types of things I will always be on alert about.
The actual skin on his repaired ear is a little waxy / seems thicker, a little darker and less pink and supple that his other ear - which makes me think that it might have been worth it to do the balloon-in-the-cheek that Dr. Lewin had recommended when he was four years old. It's so silly because now that I reflect on it, it wouldn't have made any difference for him to miss school during that time. But at the time, it seemed more important for him to not miss the school, so 20/20 hindsight, right?
The skin on the inside of his ear canal is a little sensitive, and I think it may always be like this - not entirely smooth. It's ok - I get a little baby oil and rub it on the ear canal every once in a while - it helps clean it and get the extra skin out of the canal.
The shape, size, projection and shadows of the ear are perfect. There is no question that I'm glad we did the ear and the canal reconstruction.
In terms of whether he can actually hear out of that side, I think that the ear still has quite a bit of hearing loss - maybe it helps the tiniest bit with directional hearing, but if he really wants to hear you, he turns his head. Why am I happy we did the inner ear reconstruction? I would never have known if it would work (otherwise) and it gives the ear much better definition to look better.
Hearing aid devices?
 |
| Swimmer and water polo player |
The ESSO insurance ran out and they stopped the insurance plan, so we don't have that, but we DO have the old BAHA that still works. As mentioned earlier, we still use it whenever Ben watches movies. We don't use any other devices. We had briefly considered getting one of those hearing aids that gets plugged into the ear canal, but the doctor (I forgot which one - maybe Roberson) said that we shouldn't do it because the canal could get irritated. Also, Ben seems to be used to not having the hearing aid at school.
How is he doing academically?
 |
| Loves basketball |
 |
| Flying high |
Great! He has the greatest way of talking and putting sentences together. Linguistically, he's always been a funny kid, so I don't know if he's that way because of who he is (like me) or because of his hearing. In any event, he's been learning intensive Chinese (Mandarin) since he's been in Kindergarten, and he can speak Chinese pretty well. His English vocabulary is solid. He turned a corner in the last year or so and reads voraciously.
Math is his strong suit and he has an intuitive sense for math. Learns quickly and "gets it."
Behavior-wise, he went through a phase when he was ~ 5 years old (I don't know if I mentioned this back then, but he got kicked out of the after school program for kids), and I got a call from the math teacher last year that he was fooling around too much with his best buddy when they had finished their class assignment early, but now - he's a dream kid. Selected as a prefect at his school, co-captain of his school basketball team and a strong performer academically. Also, at home, he's incredibly considerate and thoughtful to the whole family.
So there you have it - best of luck with all of your decisions. Believe me, I've been "there" when underlying every thought I had was my concern about Ben's ear. Now, I hardly ever think of it...
At 9 years, his surgically repaired right side, about four years post surgery.