Could I bend your ear?

On Thursday, Ethan had surgery done on his right ear. When Ethan was younger, he had multiple ear infections. He got ear tubes and the infections went away. Then he would get water in his ears from swimming. Ethan has always had sensitive ears and water in them would be very painful to him. His ears have also been very sensitive to loud noises. This is pretty common in kids with Asperger's Syndrome.
Sometimes it's as if he has bionic super ears. Especially times when Lady Di and I are discussing possible Christmas gifts, whispering in the garage to each other. Ethan will often come down from his room and ask, "Are you getting a baseball glove for me?". Then there are times when his hearing shuts down completely. Spongebob and Jimmy Neutron can usually block phrases such as, "Time to do homework." or "Please make your bed and clean your room." Yet his hearing magically returns when, "Snack time." is said.

Well, back to his surgery. A couple of years ago Ethan tubes came out and the right one left a hole in his inner ear that didn't heal up by itself. So,this week, the doctor had to graft a piece of skin from behind Ethan's ear lobe and use it to patch the hole. Don't worry, he came out just as handsome as he went in. The procedure is pretty common but it still is scary when your child goes under anesthesia. Ethan was very brave and was interested in everything the nurses and doctors were doing. He was a little cranky coming out of anesthesia but a Popsicle and two juice boxes brought him back to normal.

Ethan has been through a lot in his 8+ years. Hopefully this will be his last surgery for a while. Now the challenge is to keep him 'low key' for the next two weeks to let the patch heal. That means no Phy. Ed. No baseball. No running, climbing, swimming or roughhousing. No fun for two weeks. At least it is only May and not the middle of summer, when he broke both arms last year.
We'll just have to think up other fun things to do for the next two weeks. Like playing, "Get Daddy the remote." and "Extreme Hammock Rocking."

I think his ear will heal even faster.

Caution: Next photo is not for the squeamish.

Dude! Nice stitches!