December 28th Foot Surgery

On Wednesday December 28, 2011, I had a bunionectomy performed.  I was sedated for this procedure, but don't remember a thing...it was like being under anesthesia, except much easier to wake up from.  They numbed my whole foot, so I didn't feel much in my foot for quite a few hours after.  Then I took my pain medicine and that night it started hurting pretty bad.  The next day, I tried to take minimal pain medicine because I don't like the way it makes me feel, but the medicine wasn't doing anything for me.  Turned out that the second day is the peak of pain, so the next morning on day three, I went to the doctor's office and they changed my bandages out.  Beware, the pictures below are pretty graphic.  They basically sawed off the big toe bone that was sticking out and stuck a pin into my big toe to help it heal straight.  My foot had minimal swelling and not much bleeding (I think it's because I over iced it).  Today is day four and I've only taken two tylenol this morning and it's now the late afternoon and I'm about to take two more.  It's not that painful, just more of a dull ache now.  They have me using crutches for a couple of weeks and the boot over the bandages until the bandages permanently come off, which will be a week after the pin comes out on its own.

This picture was taken the day after surgery.

 I had to mark the surgery foot yes and the non-surgery foot no for them.

December 27, 2011 Ashlyn's post-op visit to get bandages off

Alright, so Kaylyn ran a 101 fever this morning at 4:00 am, got tylenol and came back down to 98.3 most of the day.  We headed over to Tampa to see Ashlyn's ear doctor to take the bandages off.  She was scared when he was taking the bandages off as you can see in the pictures.  Then we headed to Sonny's to meet my sister Kara, her husband Chris, and their little one Kalia.  She is so funny...when she starts to cry, all you have to do is get out the camera and she instantly smiles for the camera to take pictures.  She's only 6 months old and already doing this!  It's so funny!  Then we headed to David's Bridal so that I could order the dress and shoes for my other sister's wedding in April.  We got back in the car at 2:00 pm, took Kaylyn's temperature and it was back up to 100.3.  Ugh!  Gave more tylenol and she's staying at 99.  She has an appointment tomorrow at 9:45 and I have surgery at 10:30.  It's going to be another long day tomorrow.  Sometime in between this time off work, getting over sicknesses, and healing, we need to do Kaylyn's science project!

Ashlyn with her surgery bears that have the same bandages

 Ashlyn & Dr. Farrior before taking the bandages off

 Before picture of Ashlyn's left ear (kind of a bad pic)...only a little bit of her ear was fixed on the outside of this ear near the bottom.  This was the ear that had major surgery in March to remove the cholesteatoma.  This time he only had to chip some bone growth away that occurred and fix an air pocket that formed in her ear drum.  He said there was no disease in this ear anymore!

 Here is the after picture of Ashlyn's left ear.  We have to put 6 drops of antibiotic ear drops in her ear 3 times every day and cannot get the ear wet for 6-8 weeks.

 Here is the before picture of Ashlyn's right ear.  The doctor explained that it was an underdeveloped ear and lacked cartilage in parts of her ear.

 This is the after picture of Ashlyn's right ear.  It was pretty swollen still since there was a lot of stuff done on it.  He has three focal points that he tries to get the distance from the head to the outside of the ear and he said all three focal points matched perfectly.  Can't wait until the swelling goes down!

 

Wish I had a before picture of this because this would be the best picture of all to show the differences between the two ears.  Other than the swelling on the right ear, the ears look very similar now.  Amazing what Dr. Dean Davis did!

 Kalia at Sonny's with us and her parents

 Aunt Kara and Kalia

 Kaylyn, Kalia, & Aunt Kara.  Kaylyn was so happy to finally get to be near Kalia since we are pretty sure she is no longer contagious!

Aunt Kara & Kalia doing sacks of potatoes (and Uncle Chris to the side)

Ashlyn finally got to take her hair out of those awful rubber band ponytails.  They shaved her hair behind each ear, but her hair grows so fast, it will be nothing.  Also, she has to wear these bands around for 6 weeks to prevent her ear snagging on anything and "ripping".  The doc told us to get a sweat band, but I think the cloth headbands are much cuter ;-)  Now, I just can't wait until we can wash her hair.  I have a feeling we'll be using a lot of the powder shampoo since we can't get her ears wet.

Christmas Day 2011

After opening up presents at home, we all get ready and headed over to Mamaw Justice's house where we saw Wai-gong, Uncle Steven, Uncle Josh & Amanda, Aunt Amy, Tyler, Aunt Jessica & Adam. Then we headed over to Wai-gong & Wai-po's house in Rockledge to have Christmas Lunch/dinner. Food was good, but Kaylyn was still running fever so her and I stayed up in an upstairs bedroom most of the time...poor baby...no way to spend Christmas week!

Ashlyn in the morning ready to open presents from Santa

Kaylyn in the morning ready to open presents from Santa

Ashlyn after opening all her Christmas presents

Mommy showing off her bling that the girls got her from the Christmas Shoppe at school

The cat in the box...she kept chasing her tail around and around while in the box

Kaylyn loving her new American Girl Doll, Kanani (you can just see she's miserable in the eyes...poor baby!)

Scout with his bone from his stocking (Santa answered Kaylyn's wish)

Run, Scout, run

Uncle Steven & Aunt Jessica

Mamaw

Me & Kaylyn

Wai-gong

Cousin Tyler

Christmas dinner around the table at Wai-gong & Wai-po's house

Uncle Tim & Mamaw

Aunt Jessica

Wai-po

Ashlyn & Wai-po (Ashlyn enjoying her new camera that Santa got her)

Aunt Demi & Uncle Tim

Mamaw

Wai-gong

Tommy & Aunt Arrietta

Grandma & Grandpa Drago

Adam & Aunt Jessica

Shyanne & Grandpa Drago

Aunt Arrietta & Riley

Taylor (a.k.a. Tay-Tay)

Grandma Drago & Wai-gong

Kaylyn with her new Girls Rule Skateboard from Wai-gong & Wai-po

Kaylyn & Ashlyn opening up more Christmas presents

Update on Kaylyn day after Christmas:

We just got back from urgent care since the doctor's office was closed today and we were told to go to the doctor's if Kaylyn's fever had not broke by this morning. They think it's still the pneumonia and it's not breaking up, so they gave her a shot on each side of her backside with something that should help break it up. Also, they put her an augmentin (sp?) which will be her third antibiotic in 9 days, so I bought some children's pro biotic also. Hoping that this will be it and she'll be better by tonight with those shots and the new antibiotic! We go back to Tampa tomorrow to get Ashlyn's bandages off and we would like Kaylyn to be better so she can hold her cousin...she was so upset last week when we stayed with my sister and she couldn't even be in the same room with her cousin who is 6 months old :-(

Christmas Eve 2011

Aunt Jessica, Adam, Shyanne, & Tyler came over to our house for a little bit to exchange presents.  Later on in the evening, we went to Mamaw's house to have Chili and exchange gifts.  It was nice hanging with the family.  Poor Kaylyn is still sick though with her fever and coughing.  I wish there was something I could do!  At Mamaw's house we saw Mamaw of course, Wai-po, Wai-gong, Audrey and her sister, little Levi, Aunt Arrietta, Riley, Ellie, Tommy and his girls, Uncle Tim, Aunt Demi, and Taylor.  Afterwards, we went home where we set out oreos and chocolate milk for Santa and left him some notes.  One was telling Santa to enjoy the oreos and chocolate milk and the other was Kaylyn asking Santa to leave something in the animals' stockings!

Kaylyn, Shyanne, & Ashlyn

Tyler loving the Veggie Tales Noah's Ark we got him!

Shyanne with her new Action Bible

Ashlyn with her new Tinker Bell PJs

Tommy and his daughter, Aunt Arrietta & Ellie, and Mamaw

Taylor

Riley

Uncle Tim

Wai-gong

Kaylyn opening gifts still sick :-(

Riley and I

Ashlyn with her new bracelet from Taylor

Aunt Demi, Uncle Tim, and Mamaw

Mamaw with the Broken Chain frame of Papaw that we gave her

Taylor with the digital frame keychain we got her

Wai-po opening gifts

Wai-gong opening gifts

The stockings hung on the fireplace

Oreos, chocolate milk, and letters to Santa Claus