Gabi: 2010-01-17

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Leaving Comments

I have heard a lot of feedback on people having trouble leaving a comment for Gabi. I think you need to "preview" the comment before you accept it...and that might work. Let me know if that still doesn't work and I will look into it again. jane

Monday, January 18, 2010

Pictures Before the Surgery

After my surgery these pictures will be different than before. My ear will open and it will look different. After the first surgery my ear will be formed but stuck to my head. It will not stay like that though. In the second surgery they will make my ears stick out the same. I don't know what the third surgery is.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Shopping

I went shopping today. I got lots of new shirts and two outfits for my surgery. I need button on shirts because I will have a bandage on my head and it will be hard to get my shirts off with that on. My doctor's name is Dr. Brent. My mom is typing this for me. I got a purple shirt which is my favorite color and I got a red shirt which is my friend Mari's favorite color. I also got cute jeans and cute leggings. I got new shoes. They are tan with buckles. Chloe got the same shoes except for dark brown. The reason I got the shoes is because it's more like summer in Cali and to look cute. We leave in nine days, which is on the 26th. My surgery is on the 28th. I want the surgery because I want to hear. I don't want the surgery because I want my little ear to stay. Half my body wants a new ear and the other half wants the old ear to stay. I also want a new ear so that I can wear ponytails. I can't wear ponytails now because in kindergarten I wore a ponytail and we all sat down on a carpet for word time and they all stared at me. I wonder what the plane ride to California is going to be like. Last time there were lots and lots of air pockets. Me and Chloe would switch having turns by the window. I cried when I was by the window because I was scared, and chloe wasn't even afraid. I'll write more another day. Goodbye. Peace out. Gabi

Why the surgery?

Gabi has been taught to love her little ear, but there comes a time to make some decisions. Gabi's hearing aide is the type that has to be on a headband that she wears everyday until she grows big enough to have it surgically implanted into her bone. The headband is made for toddlers, with the idea that the hearing aide will eventually be surgically implanted. If there's one thing we've learned from her teachers, it's that she always does much much better when that hearing aide is working properly. We hear it every single year.

Decision number one...Do we continue with hearing aides and have it implanted? If we have it implanted, then she can't do the construction of the outer ear. It's a decision we would be making that would last her lifetime. The outer construction has to be done with "virgin" skin, meaning no previous holes or surgeries or anything.

Decision number two...Do we open that canal up so she can hear without a hearing aide? Again, if we open it up then we have to do the outer construction first. You can't do the ear canal and then decide later that you want to construct an outer ear.

Decision number three...do we just leave well enough alone and do nothing? We could...and that is what we have done the last eight years. Now that Gabi is eight we are faced with another issue. Teasing. Kids are cruel. Gabi started wanting to hide her ear. She started saying that she "only loves her little ear if other people can't see it."

The constructive surgery for an ear is an amazingly difficult process. You really have to be both a surgeon and an artist. There are only a handful of people in the country that are successfully doing the surgery. Another issue...if you don't do it right, then the ear is lost. One chance. There aren't any doctors in this state that are even doing the surgery.

After many years of diliberation, our insurance company gave the word that they saw the surgery as "medically necessary." Off we go to California to the doctor who pioneered the surgery and has had many many successful surgeries. After she is done with outer construction, she can have her ear canal opened with her doctor at the Mayo in Rochester, and throw the hearing aide in the toilet (or maybe donate it to someone else) and be done with it.

We're actually sad to say goodbye to our little ear...but looking forward to hearing without complications. :)

Gabi

Gabi and big sister Sophie

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Shocked!