Because it's been so cold here (in the single digits during the day), and I have to keep my ear warm to keep up the blood supply, I had to take hats (yes, hats plural) and a hood on and off a lot to keep it warm. By this morning, the mold was looser than the day before (it was already loose yesterday, every day it gets a bit looser, from wear and decreased swelling). I was in the mirror and scratched below my ear lobe (there's room there now that the swelling has gone down), I noticed that the mold pulled away from my lobe about a centimeter. I called Dr. Griffiths to make sure it would be okay overnight and wouldn't push on the ear, and he thought it should be fine.
Then, I got in the shower with my shower cap that I have to wear to keep the ear dry. When I gently teased the cap off, it pulled the mold more. By then, the mold was mainly just attached above the ear in my hair. I called Dr. Griffiths back because now I was really concerned about the night. We talked about options, and decided I would see what I could come up with in terms of putting a sock or something around the ear with my winter hat over top for the night. I could also try to keep the mold on and slip the hat over that. A few hours later, I realized my head was hurting by the top of the mold because, since that's what was keeping it attached, the hair there was being pulled and hurting my scalp. I pulled the mold all of the way off.
I had a long photo shoot with my cell phone and my ear after that. Around 7:30 pm Dr. Griffiths called back. He decided it would be best for everyone if he and his wife picked me up and we all went over to his office and checked out the ear and got the right foam for me for the night. At the office, he checked out the ear. He said it looked great, just swollen - a little more than he likes, but that's probably because of how loose the mold was, as he relies on the mold to help keep some of the swelling out. Then, he took out the stitches and removed the foam from behind the other ear where he had used the groin skin to cover the skin graft he had taken to cover my new ear.
In short: New ear gets covered with the TP fascia flap (a layer of skin that has all the nerve endings in it), then a graft from the skin behind the existing ear. The graft area behind that ear is covered with skin from the "groin" (to me, it's the skin in the crease between my right stomach and thigh). The groin graft area is pinched together and sewn up. That skin will stretch back out over time.
The best news (besides that everything is healing okay so far) is that I can wash my hair tomorrow morning!!!
Also, while I was at his office, he showed me all my pictures from before, during, and at the completion of surgery. It was SO cool to see the carved rib cariledge!! I had high hopes from what I had seen on his website, but of course, you never know how exceptional the cases online are. My framework was way beyond what I could have imagined! I didn't really look hand-done it was so smooth and perfect! He pointed out the specifics of how it fits with my other ear. I don't have much of a "rim" after about half-way down on my other ear, and the highest point is actually farther in, and he pointed out how he matched that. It was also exciting to find out that in addition to using my existing lobe by rotating it down in the back (which pretty much all new ears take advantage of), for me, I had enough ear at the top of my microtia ear, that he was able to rotate it down and use it for the front middle part of the ear that sticks out! I'm so happy that he was able to, and took the time to, use even more of my ear than normal. The skin from the front of my microtia ear was also used. It was interesting to see the photos from surgery and have him explain it all to me. He pointed out that there were 3 tiny stitches in the top front of the ear from where my microtia ear had tiny little pinhole openings in it. It's cool how everything was put together and how creative these reconstructive surgeons are! The stitches are only across the top of the lobe and then across the side of the ear. He also zoomed in and showed me some of the "3Dness" of the ear and about how deep the spot where the canal should be will end up being when it's not swollen. My ear is also has a deep ridge at the top, so he told me about how deep that was too (I just can't remember the exact measurements).
After seeing the carved cartiledge, I saw pictures with the skin over top and stitched up, and it looked really good! At the moment, my lobe is sticking out at a weird angle and I was a little worried, but once the swelling goes away, it will be normal looking (I asked him to confirm as well). I'm very excited for the finished product! I trusted that I would have a good outcome and that I was making the right choice FOR ME (NOT everyone, just me), but now I'm relieved that I am getting results to go along with my gut feelings.
So, I will post more tomorrow when I have my actual appointment and know more, but for tonight, here's some photos from today. As will some others, I am putting them under a "break", so that if a healing, swollen ear will bother you, you don't have to see it. It's not bleeding, but it is pink in a lot of places and the area where the stitches are has dried gunk around it. Enjoy!
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