Welcome to Kelley's blog! This is to keep everyone in touch while we are in California seeing Dr. Reinisch for Kelley's cool, cutting-edge ear reconstruction. We're so grateful for all the love, support, and prayers we have received. We wanted to create a way to keep everyone up to date on what's happening, so voila! Blog.
Kelley was born with a birth defect called Atresia/Microtia, where she was born without an ear canal, and without an outer ear. In July 2006, at the age of 3, we travelled to Palo Alto, CA where an awesome place called the California Ear Institute and a wonderful surgeon named Joseph Roberson performed something called a canalplasty. Shortly after this surgery, she could truly hear out of her right ear for the first time in her life. Exciting stuff.
Now, we are headed to the Los Angeles area to see a man named John Reinisch, of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Kelley will be receiving something called a Medpor Implant, which will create an outer ear for her. This part of your anatomy is called a pinna. Traditionally, this reconstruction has taken place with a surgery called rib graft - where a part of your own rib cartilage is used to construct the outer ear. With Medpor, this invasive surgery is no longer necessary, and the child has a shorter recovery. We were keenly interested in providing this for her, as the idea of having to surgically open up her chest and take out some of her rib cartilage gave us what I call that "uh oh" feeling. Thankfully, through the Atresia/Microtia Yahoo! message board group, we connected with other parents and subsequently other surgical possibilities.
So, here we are! We are leaving in the morning on March 16th, and this weekend we are taking a little side trip to Disneyland, where my princess gets to meet some princesses (she's a *tad* obsessed with them. This is going to be the highlight of her little life so far.)
Kelley was born with a birth defect called Atresia/Microtia, where she was born without an ear canal, and without an outer ear. In July 2006, at the age of 3, we travelled to Palo Alto, CA where an awesome place called the California Ear Institute and a wonderful surgeon named Joseph Roberson performed something called a canalplasty. Shortly after this surgery, she could truly hear out of her right ear for the first time in her life. Exciting stuff.
Now, we are headed to the Los Angeles area to see a man named John Reinisch, of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Kelley will be receiving something called a Medpor Implant, which will create an outer ear for her. This part of your anatomy is called a pinna. Traditionally, this reconstruction has taken place with a surgery called rib graft - where a part of your own rib cartilage is used to construct the outer ear. With Medpor, this invasive surgery is no longer necessary, and the child has a shorter recovery. We were keenly interested in providing this for her, as the idea of having to surgically open up her chest and take out some of her rib cartilage gave us what I call that "uh oh" feeling. Thankfully, through the Atresia/Microtia Yahoo! message board group, we connected with other parents and subsequently other surgical possibilities.
So, here we are! We are leaving in the morning on March 16th, and this weekend we are taking a little side trip to Disneyland, where my princess gets to meet some princesses (she's a *tad* obsessed with them. This is going to be the highlight of her little life so far.)
