14 Weeks, 4 Days

Hello all!

I have been extraordinarily busy the past few weeks, and then went on vacation last week, so I missed a few weeks of updates.  I'm going to stick with the style from last time; I will give you some major highlights in the progress, or lack thereof, and then add some photos.

1) Dr. Griffiths agreed that the two pieces of cartilage near the top on the rim had indeed separated.  He said for now will we keep an eye on it (meaning I will send him pictures more often until we conclude it is okay), but if it needs to be corrected, it would be a fairly easy procedure.

2) My fibromyalgia pain comes and goes, but isn't really any worse near my incision than anywhere else these days!  However, the swelling I thought I had on my right side is actually just a permanent indentation from having some of my rib cartilage removed, which can happen (but not always).  For me, it's not too noticeable (unless I stand completely straight, not even my doctors can tell), but since it is my body, I do see it.  I don't really care, and I can't even see it very easily...one advantage of being female ;)

3) I have some feeling not only in my earlobe (which did not have any skin graft), but now it's also creeping up and into parts near the edge of the skin graft.  Some weeks it is itchier than others.  A week ago, I was worried I had all the feeling back I was going to get, but then a few days ago it started itching like mad again.  The break was nice, though!  When I lay on that ear, as new areas develop feeling, it feels weird!

4) I love having my new ear.  Despite the hematoma from coughing for 2 hours coming out of anesthesia, and the unfortunate discovery that I wasn't free of pain way beyond what the 'longest recovery' had been because I had fibromyalgia that had been increased from the physical trauma of a 13 hour surgery and painful recovery (I believe, looking back, I have had fibromyalgia for 16 years.  We just never knew because I was too young to know it wasn't normal to feel how I felt and I didn't know how to advocate for myself...plus we were accidentally already treating it with a medication I was taking for another reason), I would do it again.  The feeling of balance and completeness on my head is wonderful!  Yes, I could have worked through those feelings and gotten used to it, but I have a lot of other things I need to put that energy towards, and I had a great opportunity to get the gift of a new ear.  I'm an artist, and for me, there is a lot of artistry in having an ear sculpted out of my own cartilage.  I love it.  I am SO happy that I made this decision though.  I am thankful that my parents didn't have it done before I was old enough to get teased, etc.  It made me stronger to grow up that way, granted it was never a sore spot physically in school, which I know is not the case for everyone.  I also know that it is a lot easier to get insurance to cover the procedure when the patient is a child.  I know I'm lucky, and I also know that the timing was perfect for me.  However, everyone's life is so unique, there's no "right way", or "right time", etc. in general.  We all need to support everyone's choices, because there are too many variables for there to be any sort of chart telling us what is right for everyone.

...and now...some photos!!!!!

This last one you may have to scroll a bit to see it all, but I thought having the pictures be a little bigger would be worth that added hassle...