Surgery Update

Micah was in surgery from about 9:30-3:00. The doctors were able to get the majority of the cyst removed. They removed the cyst around the airway, but left some of the cyst around his ear. The cyst around his ear isn’t affecting anything. That cyst involves the facial nerve, and when Micah is bigger, the nerve will be bigger and easier to work around. (Time frame for this? No rush, they say… Months, years? As long as it doesn’t cause problems.) They weren’t comfortable working on that area since the facial nerve is so small and important. Unfortunately, despite what we were told, the cyst is in the airway just slightly. There are some discolorations that are signs of the cyst, but it doesn’t extend into the airway. The ear, nose and throat doctor was surprisingly not concerned right now. They are talking about taking him off the ventilator in the next few days if he can tolerate it, which is great! They kept as much of the extra skin as possible in case some of the skin doesn’t survive. Once they figure out what they have to work with, they’ll revise the scar. The extra skin is pretty discolored because it got beat up so bad. There was a LOT of information given, and right now the short version is there’s a lot they don’t know about how it went. There’s a chance of facial nerve damage, but they can’t tell until he’s awake enough to move his mouth. We hope the facial nerve damage is minimal, but there’s no way to tell yet. Mr. Micah now has an adorable little chin and jaw line. He’s even cuter than he was before. I joked I’m not sure whose chin he has, since I’ve never seen Travis’ chin (because of his beard!) After being in surgery for hours, Micah really looks great. He’s a sweet little boy… We are so happy to have him, especially now that he can recover and get strong. I’m sure we’ll have lots more medical information in the days to come but honestly, we’re just glad he made it through surgery and we have him (and there’s a chance of holding him in a few days or a week).