Gavin's Ears

When I mention to people that Gavin is having a procedure done on his ears to pin them back, most people looked a little baffled and say, "I never noticed his ears stick out".  Maybe it's Gavin great personality or beautiful blue eyes, but many people don't pay attention to his ears.  Truthfully, they didn't bother Gavin too much either, but he was having a difficult time hearing out of his left ear (it was echoey he said).
We are not sure why Gavin's ears are shaped the way they are.  His pediatrician believes that his left ear became folded over in the womb and developed that way.  The cartilage it there, it is just misshaped.


We decided it was time to do something about it.  We had talked to ENT surgeons twice before when Gavin was younger, but it just didn't feel right.  We felt like now the time was right.  We didn't want to wait any longer.  We were referred to Dr. Harlan Muntz by our pediatrician.  Dr. Muntz works out of Primary Children's and the U of U Medical Center.  We met with him at the Riverton Primary Children's hospital a few months ago and immediately liked him.  He went over the surgery with us, the cost ($8,000-$10,000, not covered by insurance!) and the recovery time.  When he was done, we were all feeling a bit overwhelmed.  He then said, "But, if you are interested, I have another option for you."  Yes, we are interested.
Dr. Muntz had just been approved to conduct a trial study for a new procedure called, Cartilaze, in the United States.  Specialists have been doing this procedure for about 30 years in Europe, but Dr. Muntz was the first in the states.  It involves lasering the cartilage in the ear with a low level laser and then reshaping the ear.  The doctor makes a mold of the ear in the shape they want the end results.  After about 20 minutes of lasering, they place the molds on the ear and keep them in place with a headband (like a fleece ear warmer).  Patients must wear the mold 24 hours a day for three weeks and then at night for three more weeks.  It involves no surgery, no cutting, no risk of infection, no anesthesia.  Another benefit - because Gavin was one of the first in the study the total cost to us was a whopping $0.  Yep, nothing!
Although Gavin wasn't thrilled about wearing the molds to school, we all felt that the benefits outweighed the cons and we signed Gavin up for a December date.  A laser specialist flies into Salt Lake from Europe once a month, so the procedure is only done one day a month.  We snagged the December date so Gavin would only have to wear the molds to school for a week and then have two weeks of Christmas break to finish out his first three weeks. (He received permission from the principal to wear a beanie to cover the headband while at school.)
Today while we were driving up to Riverton, I'm sure I was more nervous than Gavin was.  Gavin just wanted to get it over with.  We met Greg at the hospital and after much confusion and time on the phone, we realized that Dr. Muntz was up in Salt Lake that day.  We rushed up to Primary Children's, wandered until we found his office, only to be told that he was over at the U of U Medical Center today.  Okay.  We ran over there and were only an hour late for Gavin's appointment.  They squeezed us in because they didn't want to put it off another month.
The actual procedure went well.  Gavin said the laser pain was minimal and he spent most of the time reading a book.  They fit the molds onto his ears and put on his headband and we were ready to go.

I wish that was the end of our story.  Unfortunately for Gavin, he has developed some nasty blisters and sores on his ears from wearing the molds.  I'm not sure if this is normal, but we weren't expecting it.  Dr. Muntz has prescribed Augmentin for infection and also some Lortab for the pain (it was that bad).  Between the Lortab (which I dose out very carefully) and Advil, Gavin is able to make it through the day.  The blisters are slowly healing and Gavin is being such a good sport about it.
We are hoping and praying that this works and the procedure was successful.  We will keep you updated.