So we went into recovery, and finally into our room for the night and settled down. Caleb was in pain, but after the extensive surgery he had been through, it was to be expected. During his surgery, they had cut into his bottom rib on his left side and removed cartilage for the ear; they had cut the left side of his scalp to get the flap (blood supply) to cover this cartilage; they cut into the artery in the right side of his neck to connect the flap to receive blood; also, they peeled the skin off of his left butt cheek to cover all flap & cartilage. So needless to say, he had quite a day. Out of it all, the rib hurt the worst. Poor little guy!
Just a note here, Caleb is highly allergic to clear tape (not tegaderm, but the other clear tape at hospitals LOL). We did mention this to the nurse when they were getting his history b4 the surgery, but obviously it got missed b/c he did not have an allergy band on his arm. Big mistake. *sigh* The next day after his surgery, he started complaining that his bottom itched really bad. :( We thought it was just from the taking the skin off his bottom. It was so heavily covered that we couldn't tell. Well the next day after that, he was so upset about it, it wasn't even funny. We had the nurses peel the dressing off his bottom back, and sure enough, he had clear tape on there. The rash was unbelievable! The tape was an inch wide and maybe 2 inches long, but the rash was all over his bottom. Needless to say, he got an allergy band saying he was allergic to clear tape.
Other than that, things were going very smoothly. They were going to let us go home on Saturday, and then come back Monday to take all the bandages off and see our new ear. Well, the doctor decided to go ahead and keep us until Monday. Not that there were any problems, but it was just easier since we lived so far away now. So we stayed until Monday, and they released us, and told us to be back on Wednesday, we would see the ear then. (Don't ask me, they just kept changing their minds on dates LOL).
We went to our parent's house and stayed Monday night, Tuesday, and went back to the hospital on Wednesday morning early. Dr. H uncovered the ear and what we saw was NOT promising!!! The ear had a BEAUTIFUL shape, however the space between the flap and the skin was FULL of blood! :( What was happening is that the ear was not draining the blood as fast as it was receiving the blood. :( So we got put back in the hospital Wed. and Dr. H took Caleb back into surgery removing the skin and leaving the flap open. He came to our room and told us that we were going to do something called 'Leech Therapy' (he looked kind of nervous about what reaction he was fixing to get from us).
Now Ross & I have both read quite a bit on leech therapy in the past (for no particular reason other than it interested us). We were excited that this might actually help with Caleb's ear, and said yes. Dr. H was excited, we were excited, and Caleb was thrilled as well!!! We waited til the next day to start it, as they had to order the leeches from New York and have them overnighted to the hospital.
The next day the leeches came in and the nurses brought them in to show us. Caleb was excited until they told him that we would have to kill the leeches after we used them. I know this sounds harsh, but after they attach, they are no longer sterile leeches, and we can't use them again. So we finally explained that they were one time eaters, and he was fine with that. We started the leech therapy, and it was really working. Everyone was pleased. The one problem we had throughout the therapy was that the nurses would put the leeches on and where ever they attached (on the ear), that was good enough. But that really wasn't good enough. There were certain spots that needed it worse than others, but the nurses wouldn't try to fix it. :(
