5 weeks post op

I know I keep saying this but I am AMAZED at the healing process. Her ear looks beautiful and has completely healed. All swelling and redness seems to be completely gone, and we are now looking forward to step two in May. Carolyn is excited for the next step as well and is so proud of her big ear. She even showed it to the gas station attendant last week... Which led me into a ten minute discussion about the entire process and why she was going through this. But I am so happy that she feels so comfortable showing her "big ear from Atlanta" to complete strangers :).

Bandages off and all clean!

We took the bandages off today for the final time! Carolyn loves her big ear and it is so cool to see how much it has already changed. Swelling has gone down some and the redness is subsiding. Her hair has been washed for the first time in 9 days, and brushing it afterwards was the worst part of this entire process!! Even with half a bottle of conditioner and about half a bottle of spray leave-in conditioner, it still took about 30 minutes to brush all the mattes out. Now Carolyn is ready for a celebration! So I guess that is our next project!! She deserves one!!

One of the pictures below was pre-bath and there is a bit of dried blood on her microtia ear. This is where the incision was made to put the rib graft ear in. He removed those few stitches at post op. You can see where it looks better in the picture after the bath.