CT Scan ✅

Today, Friday, January 28th Chase and I ducked out of school a little early to head down to the Children’s hospital to get his temporal CT scan done. Chase did awesome and sat still for the scan even after it took longer then anticipated.

A temporal CT scan is an important step towards Chases new ear as it allows the specialist to see what parts of Chase’s ear are truly affected. There is about a 20% chance Chase‘s inner and middle ear anatomy are correct and hearing can be restored fully.

If, and that’s a big if, this is the case we will be adding an additional surgery (a canalplast) and around $20,000 to the schedule for June. A canalplasty is a technique in which a specialist Dr. Roberson, would come in during the surgery and build Chase an ear canal opening his hearing up.

In the event the structures are inaccurately developed or placed funky we will continue on as planned and place a hearing aid at the time of surgery.

Typically, and this is where it gets a bit sad, kids with microtia and atresia get this CT scan done between 2-3 years of age. The CT allows the drs to see if hearing can be restored. We were never advised to get this kind of scan done and just went along with what the local doctors recommend. We did get an ABR done when Chase was younger that tested his auditory nerve on that side but not an anatomy scan.

The CT also serves as a way for the team to develop plains based on where Chas’s facial nerves and main blood vessels are during surgery. We should be getting those result in the next coming weeks.