Corinne's Big Adventure

About a month ago Corinne's pediatrician found a small lump in her ear located on her ear drum and told me to take her to a specialist. We then found out from the Ear,Nose,Throat MD that the thing in Corinne's ear was called a costiatoma (sp?) and that it was a congenital malformation that needed to be removed or it would continue to grow and would hurt the small bones in her ear. We were then scheduled for a CT Scan of her ear to find out how large the lump was to determine how big of a surgery it would be. Luckily, it was not touching any other bones or surfaces in her ear other than her ear drum. So, we were then scheduled for minor same day surgery at American Fork Hospital for a Merangoplasty (sp?).

Needless to say, yesterday we went into the hospital for Corinne to have surgery and here she is with the "comfort" toys she picked out for her "nap." That morning while changing Corinne's diaper I was explaining to her that she would be seeing the doctor's at the hospital that day. She said to me, "but my doctors hurt me mommy." Oh, how my heart broke! But she was still smiling at this point.

Here is Corinne modeling for mommy and daddy her lovely new nightgown that she was going to get to wear at the hospital.

Corinne was visited by some nice ladies that explained to her that she would be taken to another room and would breath into a mask to go to sleep. They gave her a new doll and had her practice putting the mask on the doll to help her go to sleep. Corinne was very brave and the nurses told me that she didn't cry at all going into the operating room and breathing into the mask. She left us at about 9:45am and we got her back around 10:15AM. She was no happy camper upon her return. She was in a great deal of pain and was quite grumpy from feeling so groggy. She cried all morning and kept holding her ear. We left the hospital around 11:15AM and she was still crying. When we got home she would be okay, and then all of sudden look to the side and start crying again. It was so sad. At around 1:00pm, she sat up all of a sudden on the couch and said, "Mommy, my ear is better, it's not broken!" From then on she continued to perk up and had less and less pain medication.
This is her today, off all pain medication and showing off her prizes from the hospital. Her new baby, princess sticker "it's Booty", and bubbles. We'll be checking in with the doctor over the next 2 months. Hopefully nothing grows back and we don't have to do this again! How grateful we are that it was so minor and caught so young and early!