Gerrit's ears

Gerrit had his appointment with Dr. W today. She checked to see if the holes in his eardrums from last year's surgery had closed up by themselves and if not to schedule surgery for mid to late August to correct them. I was shocked by what she told me. The left eardrum has a very small hole that she said she could easily fix but the right eardrum has a very big hole that she cannot fix. Gerrit has to see a specialist in Minneapolis. It's some major reconstruction. The doctor will have to shave off some of the bone in his ear and remove cartilage to fix the hole.

His hearing was tested today and it's normal-that's good. Once he has the surgery (the doctor in Minneapolis will do both ears at the same time) he cannot swim for six weeks so we'll wait until a little later in the summer to have it done since swimming is a big part of summer and his hearing hasn't been affected. The hard thing is finding a time when the doctor can see us for the consult and do the surgery the next day so we don't have to make two trips and finding time in our schedule that doesn't interfer with the kids' schedules. The week of August 17th would be great but it doesn't work for the doctor. He can do August 11-12 but Aleah has band camp and if she misses would have to do makeup lessons after school once it starts-not such a big deal. We may try for the last week of July but then the kids miss the last week of baseball and tennis-again not such a big deal. I just wish the doctor could have worked us in the week of August 17th. I need to call tomorrow and get something set up.