Well, we lost the first flap b/c it wasn't kept moist enough. :( Also turns out that Caleb obviously wasn't drinking enough water. We were shoving water at him, and we were keeping track of it on paper and showing nurses, however no one ever said a thing about it. When Caleb was hooked up to the IV drip the night before the 3rd surgery, within 5 hours, the flap had pinkened up quite a bit. Not enough to save it, but enough to see some of the problem (now mind you, Ross by this time had to go back to work, so I am at the hospital by myself w/ Caleb, and I am not the most pushy person in the world. *sigh*)

Well, the next morning, when I noticed the flap had pinkened up, I was in EVERYONE's face about it! They were all like 'yah yah'. Well, I told Dr. H. as well and he said I was right! *BG* I was beaming! So, he went to surgery, removed the first flap, and put on the 2nd flap and kept Caleb hooked up to the IV drip for the next week and a half. Caleb went through surgery like a champ (of course *G*). And so now we were 3 surgeries into this, and Ross was feeling just miserable because he couldn't be there. :(

That night, Dr. H. told me that we were going to be very aggressive w/ the leech therapy this time and were going to be doing it every hour now instead of ever 4 like we were b4. YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Each leech pulls out at least 5 cc's of blood and then the ear would continue to seep blood over the next few hours. That is a lot of blood lost. :( I was told that Caleb would very likely need a blood transfusion during this time. I was NOT pleased, but I knew that the therapy was making a difference so we went forward.

I had to get my mom to come and help me through this because there was no way I was going to be able to stay awake the whole time. :( Ross couldn't be there because we had no vacation time left, and we had to keep an eye on the family sick leave time as well. (in other words, we needed the money, so he had to stay 4 hours away from the hospital so that our livelihood would continue. It was definitely the harded 2 - 1/2 weeks on Ross that he has ever had, I know this. :( And I feel terrible about it.)

During this time right here, Caleb received a PICC line. Simply put, it is an IV that a trained team of professionals put in the patient's arm that runs through to the heart. It is a fairly delicate procedure, but it is well worth it! Instead of getting poked 2 or 3 times a day to check his blood count, the nurses would just draw the blood from this PICC line. Also, he was able to receive blood transfusions through this PICC line, so we were very grateful!!!!! Caleb was excited b/c he did NOT like getting his fingers poked at ALL!!!!!

Well, we continued this therapy for the next 5 days. And it was going wonderfully! Caleb needed 2 units of blood, which was NOT exactly what I wanted, but I knew it was what was needed. :( And 2 days before we were going to have the 4th surgery to cover the flap so that we could go home, the cartilage on the edge of the ear began to be exposed (again, the flap was not being kept moist enough. *sigh* we had the most awesome 2 day nurses possible, the night nurses left something to be desired. :( see the pattern here?).

Night before the 4th and final surgery. We went to bed around 10 pm so that we would be ready for this last surgery (note here that my mom had to go back home b/c she had some things that needed to be done). I was so extremely exhausted by this time that the nurse coming in during the night wasn't waking me up. Well, I woke up with a jolt at 1 am and noticed that Caleb's right ear was COMPLETELY exposed to the air! His dressing was not on it, and was no where on the bed that I could see even! OMGosh I just about FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!!!! I started looking for a leech, just in case she had put one on and it had fallen off before she got back to our room. I didn't find one.

So I ran out to the nurse's station (she wasn't there), and I asked the nurse there if Caleb was supposed to have a leech on his ear. She checked the charts and told me 'no, the last one was at 10 pm when you were awake'. I told her flat out (probably w/ about the meanest sound that could come out of a person too), "You tell my nurse to get in our room, and I mean RIGHT NOW!" OMGosh I was so mad I couldn't see straight, all that we had been through, 3 weeks in the hospital now and SHE had the ear open, and it was COMPLETELY dry!!!!!!!!!