Cochlear Implant Surgery

So its been almost a week now since the surgery and the swelling is going down and it is healing nicely. Thought I would finally post about the surgery since some of my family isn't on facebook.

We went to the hospital last Wednesday morning we were scheduled to start at 9:00am. They put us all alone in the big pediatric post op which we got all to ourselves since he was the only pediatric surgery that day. Landen was such a happy go lucky boy having so much fun even though he hadn't had anything to eat all morning. Somewhere around 9:15 they came and told us that the surgery before us was running over. The wait just kept getting longer and longer. Landen held it together pretty good until the last 15 minutes before he went back. It wasn't until 10:00 that they finally got him into the OR.

We were expecting a three hour surgery maybe three and a half that is what the surgeon scheduled out. My brother John and his wife came to sit at the hospital with us since they are visiting from Germany. It was nice not to have to sit alone and wait while we watch silly TV shows and try not to think about our baby boy.  My brother Isaac showed up not to much later with his family. Then my sister and my parents. Thank goodness they gave us the big room cuz we kept growing. Time for me just dragged and half way through they let us know that the surgery was going well but longer then expected. So it was more and more waiting.

The surgery ended up going almost five hours. I was so nervous I wanted to see him so bad. It seemed like forever before the doctor came to see us. He explained that it was the toughest cochlear implant surgery that he ever did. Landen's cochlea was turned in an usual way making it harder to get to. Plus his facial nerves were not in the usual place so he had to drill closer to them then he expected so he had to go slow so he wouldn't damage the nerve leaving his face paralyzed or partially paralyzed. But in the end it was a very successful surgery. They got it all in place and had 100% insertion into the cochlea.

We went back to our waiting for Landen and it seemed like they would never bring him back to us. The doctor came to talk to us again and said that Landen they wanted to admit Landen into the hospital possible over night just to watch him. Although most kids go home after a few hours they didn't want to risk it by treating him like any normal child they were going to keep him. They wanted him to stay till six and then make a decision on if he should stay overnight. So we didn't get to see Landen right away.

We moved up to pediatrics to wait again... eventually the rolled him in an hour and half after his surgery had ended. We found out that he had throwing up in recovery. Poor guy looked so miserable. All my family got to see him and we settled in. At six we made the choice to keep him there overnight. I stayed with him all night it was a long night and he was in a little of pain but by morning he was looking better just not eating. We waited until noon and went home.

Since then he had done great it wasn't until Friday afternoon that Landen finally got out of bed and ate some food. By that night he was up and back to his normal crawling and playing. The stitches come out on Friday and we activate his equipment on the 27th. That is when he will finally be hearing us all again!