Zane's Official Surgical Update

Before I highlight the details of today's surgery, I just want to thank you all, once again, for the outpouring of love and prayers you've shown Zane and our entire family! It has truly meant the world to all of us.

We reported to the University of Iowa this morning at 9:45, with a surgery time of 11! But as most things go at hospitals, Zane didn't get called back until 12:15-ish! It proved quite interesting to keep 4 teenagers, 2 parents, 1 grandma, 2 family friends, and a fiesty little ninja all happy while we waited! Mostly, we just planned where our next meal would be. We are simple people.

The first update came about an hour later from Dr. K! Because there's never a dull moment with Zane, the first thing she detailed was the extra procedure she had to do. 

To remove the foreign body. 

From his nose.

A pencil eraser, to be exact.

It has been in there awhile. 

It was even on the scan.

[It caused a blockage when they tried to intubate through the nasal cavity. So that plan had to be adjusted to go through the mouth/throat. She went in and grabbed that sucker for us so we could have a nice little chat with Z about that one.]

Not even kidding. 

What. The. World.  

The rest of her report seemed unremarkable after that first little nugget, but I might as well share that stuff too, since we're already chatting. 

After doing a significant scrapping out of the LEFT ear, she found the ear drum to be compromised. So she had to insert a tube on that side. The RIGHT side also had an enormous amount of wax build-up but, due to the super thick scar tissue in the ear canal, it had basically calcified over the past 8 years. We will begin putting ear drops twice/day to soften that up so that Dr. K can scrape that ear out next time he goes "under." Best news on this side, she did INDEED see evidence of an ear drum back in behind that mess! SOOOO...we will just have to keep praying for a miracle there! 

So, once there was a pencil...ok, moving on...

Dr. Burton had the bulk of OR time, dealing with Zane's jaw. Overall it went as well as could be expected, maybe even a touch better than he thought it would go. Everything went as planned...minus the eraser, of course...

I was a little surprised to see how much of the crank was sticking out of his jaw...and the placement. Remember that whole, "Out of sight, out of mind" reassurance? Kind of hard to back up that claim when it's a 1.5 inch metal tube hanging out of the front of his neck. Yea, so...

It was also not clear that he would have 2 incisions...one for drainage and the crank, the other is higher on the jaw line and is shut with derma bond. Honestly, I can't remember what that one was for. :/

It took quite a while to be fully awake and immediately wanted to mess with the crank coming out of his neck. Shocker. They prepared us that there would be a good amount of oozing and drainage, but that's definitely been the most surprising thing, in addition to the above mentioned issues. They're watching that a good bit and may be the determining factor in whether we get to go home tomorrow. 

He's also in a good amount of pain so they're trying to get that in check. Of course, that's to be expected...it's just strange to see Zane admitting it. 

I think that's a good adequate summary for today! Thanks again for your love and prayer!

Oh, and...Chipotle and HuHot...full circle blog post, for the win.