Two Years Post-Op Update

Two Years! It's been two years since Ezra had surgery to remove the atypical mycobacterial infection that had settled around the facial nerve along the right side of his jaw. He is doing great; both the incision and the spot where the infection was are continuing to heal nicely.

You can see the faint line of the incision along the front of his ear, then under his earlobe and towards his chin...it stops about halfway between his ear and chin. There is still a slight depression from the gland they removed above the end of the incision; the doctor said that because of how young he was this should completely go away. He developed Frey's Syndrome because they removed that gland; he had just had a glass of apple juice before I took this picture, so the redness you see on his cheek is the effect of the Frey's Syndrome - it comes and goes with varying intensity depending on what he eats...fruit and candy cause a stronger reaction. It doesn't hurt him at all, we just have to make sure anyone who takes care of him knows it isn't an allergic reaction!

The actual spot where the infection was is in such a hard place to get a picture of. You can kind of see it here...right where his shirt, neck and jawline meet. Over the last few months we have really noticed it change from red to a light pinkish color. His doctor said we could bring him back for more surgery if we didn't like the way it healed up, but it seem so unnecessary to put a child through cosmetic surgery when it is something that very few people notice. 

 Ezra also had a "crooked smile" for a couple months after surgery due to the facial nerve being disturbed, but there are no signs of that now! Just a mischievous grin and twinkling eyes!

Last night we wanted to celebrate Two Years Post-Op, but it has been so cold here (cold enough for school to be closed the last 2 days!) that we decided to just stay in and have a little ice cream rather than venture out for a treat!

If you have more questions about our experience with Atypical Mycobacterium, please leave a comment or email me at thoner02k @ yahoo . com. You can read all my posts related to this here.

Hope it is warmer where you are than it is here! Thanks for stopping by!

~Anika