When Belle was born we were informed that her right ear was not fully developed. In the hospital, they performed a newborn hearing screening test. She passed it on the left side, but not her right.
Since kidneys develop about the same time as hearing, they scheduled her to have an ultrasound within a few days of birth to check both her kidney's and spine (her butt crack is slightly crooked so they just wanted to check her spine too). From "what they could tell, everything else looked fine". They weren't the most reassuring words, but we were happy to hear them none-the-less.
We were referred to a pediatric ENT who informed us that she has conditions known as Microtia (little ear) and Aural Atresia (blocked ear canal) , and that as long as she could hear fine on one side (which we would have more tests to confirm) there wouldn't be anything to do until she was older (age 6 or older).
In 2003 we also did consult with a local surgeons who preform rib graft and atresia repair and they confirmed that she would need to be older (6 or probably older since she's petite) before anything could be done.
We continued under those same assumptions until this summer (2006) when we were preparing to take Belle (now age 4.5) back to our pediatric ENT for a follow-up and I started doing some reading about an alternative to rib graft repair using as substance called Medpor. Our ENT wasn't very familiar with it but encouraged us to start looking into it.
The more we learned about the Medpor approach the more we liked it! It requires less surgeries, doesn't require the harvesting of Belle's rib (which can be painful & leave a scar) and in our opinion the results look better with Medpor. The doctor (Dr. Reinisch) that pioneered this approach (and therefore has the most experience) is at Children's Hospital in LA, so we contacted them. He's so popular that they are scheduling into 2008, but were able to take us the day before Thanksgiving. Which was only 4 months away at that point.
The main catch was that if we wanted her to have inner ear repair, they prefer it done before Medpor reconstruction. So we had to rush around to get a CT of Belle sent up to Palo Alto to the CA Ear Institute where the highly recommended ear surgeon (Dr. Roberson) could evaluate Belle to see if she was a good candidate for inner ear repair. The surgeon determined that she would not be a candidate, which we were sad about, but glad that he made the decision instead of us (because it could have been a tough choice).
Since kidneys develop about the same time as hearing, they scheduled her to have an ultrasound within a few days of birth to check both her kidney's and spine (her butt crack is slightly crooked so they just wanted to check her spine too). From "what they could tell, everything else looked fine". They weren't the most reassuring words, but we were happy to hear them none-the-less.
We were referred to a pediatric ENT who informed us that she has conditions known as Microtia (little ear) and Aural Atresia (blocked ear canal) , and that as long as she could hear fine on one side (which we would have more tests to confirm) there wouldn't be anything to do until she was older (age 6 or older).
In 2003 we also did consult with a local surgeons who preform rib graft and atresia repair and they confirmed that she would need to be older (6 or probably older since she's petite) before anything could be done.
We continued under those same assumptions until this summer (2006) when we were preparing to take Belle (now age 4.5) back to our pediatric ENT for a follow-up and I started doing some reading about an alternative to rib graft repair using as substance called Medpor. Our ENT wasn't very familiar with it but encouraged us to start looking into it.
The more we learned about the Medpor approach the more we liked it! It requires less surgeries, doesn't require the harvesting of Belle's rib (which can be painful & leave a scar) and in our opinion the results look better with Medpor. The doctor (Dr. Reinisch) that pioneered this approach (and therefore has the most experience) is at Children's Hospital in LA, so we contacted them. He's so popular that they are scheduling into 2008, but were able to take us the day before Thanksgiving. Which was only 4 months away at that point.
The main catch was that if we wanted her to have inner ear repair, they prefer it done before Medpor reconstruction. So we had to rush around to get a CT of Belle sent up to Palo Alto to the CA Ear Institute where the highly recommended ear surgeon (Dr. Roberson) could evaluate Belle to see if she was a good candidate for inner ear repair. The surgeon determined that she would not be a candidate, which we were sad about, but glad that he made the decision instead of us (because it could have been a tough choice).
