New ENT for Micah - Dr. Choe

Wednesday we made an early morning trip up the NJ Turnpike to Englewood to ENT and Allergy Associates. While at Oma's last week, I called to make an appointment with Dr. Choe for Micah, figuring that it would be sometime later this summer. There was a cancellation and I was offered 8:45 on Wednesday morning.

Which meant the Turnpike, in rush hour. Rand McNally estimated travelling time at 1 hour, 20 minutes - but I don't think that factored in traveling at the peak of rush hour. So Micah and I left at about 7 am, and we got there with a few minutes to spare - enough time to fill in the four pages of patient registration paperwork before Thea and Steve arrived.

Dr. Choe was one of the nicest specialists I've met. No lab coat, no suit and tie, and he introduced himself with his first name. I think he spent almost an hour going over the options for us (rib graft followed by atresia surgery, atresia surgery followed by MedPor, or prosthetics.) He has cared for 70+ patients with microtia, according to what I read - and he's young enough that he won't be retiring any time soon.

So next year, around his third birthday, Micah will have a CT scan of his head done and after Dr. Choe evaluates the scan the first atresia surgery can be planned for the best of the two ears. Then six months or so later, the second surgery will be in the works. Then after that we can figure out who'll be doing the MedPor.

So if all goes well, Micah will have his ear canals and his ears by early elementary school, which is right when children start to notice differences and begin to tease.

Throughout all this, Micah was clueless and worked on dismantling the rolling stool in the exam room. We left that chair with two washers and one nut on the floor, but fortunately the chair still worked.