The Manzier

It's been a long week. I was really hopeful that after Ben's surgery we could get things back to normal and quit making frequent doctor's visits. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.

Ben seems to be feeling pretty good, but when we went back to have his stitches removed the doctor noticed that part of the surgical site was swelling. The lymph node by Ben's left ear was quite large and when the doctor removed the infected tissue it left a fairly large cavity. That cavity has been filling with fluid. We've been keeping Ben on antibiotics to prevent infection, and so far that's been working, but we've had to go to the doctor to aspirate the fluid twice this week since the swelling has been pretty severe.

In an effort to minimize future swelling, Ben now has to wear a pressure bandage around his face so (hopefully) the fluid will not settle in the cavity and it can fill with healthy fat and tissue. The doctors affectionately refer to this device as the "jaw bra." It is seriously complicated to take on and off, so it's just as well that we have to leave it on pretty much 24/7. Poor Benny is not a big fan of the jaw bra, and it definitely draws attention. Poor Boo.


Oh, but the good news doesn't stop there. The skin by Ben's ear isn't healing as it should either. The doctor said he opted not to remove the skin during the surgery since it would have left a scar and he hoped that it would get better after the underlying infection was removed. Well now he's concerned that the skin itself was infected and they may have to remove the infected skin to prevent a recurrence of the infection. Great. He wants us to consult with infection disease before he makes the call, so we'll be trying to get in to see infection disease docs here soon.

In other news, baby number 2 is doing well. The doctor didn't bump back my due date even though he was measuring a little behind on dates. Yeah! So at least there's some good news this week.