August 17, 2012 - Day After Surgery

It is the day after surgery and we had to take the outer bandages off.  After taking the outer bandages off, we instilled five drops of the antibiotic ear drops and covered the inner ear packing with a cotton ball.  I tried to clean the outside of the ear with peroxide the best I could.  But as you can see by the pictures, the doctor basically cut her ear from top to bottom on the backside and pulled the ear away from the head to get in and do what he needed to do.  To do this, they had to shave a little bit of her hair off again.  No matter, her hair is like a weed and grows super fast! 

She has been in no pain at all amazingly.  The only pain she complained about was getting up this morning and her neck hurting from how she had to sleep (propped up on her pillow).  We've been giving her tylenol every four hours just in case, trying to keep on top of it in case there really is pain, but the tylenol is helping it.

Here's a few pictures of what the incision looks like so you can get the general idea.

Thursday August 16, 2012 - Ashlyn's 3rd Ear Surgery

So, we had to be at St. Joseph's Hospital this morning at 5:45 am.  Boy, are we tired!  She is now back in the OR and they just got started.  They will call us in a few minutes to let us know how much surgery it will take (less severe, or more severe).  I will post more when we find out.  This was the first time they gave her the IV before putting her under, so she was a little scared with that, but they numbed the area before giving it (and even that didn't hurt).  She didn't feel a thing.  They gave her some silly medicine for the first time and she got really silly.  She couldn't even talk...she just kept laughing and it got to the point where she could barely keep her eyes open before they took her back.  She was so silly!

1st UPDATE:  It was deeper back than he expected, but he said since he has to go back further, he might be able to fix some of the hearing while he's back there.  He will have to do a partial ear drum reconstruction and may be able to use the skin from her ear instead of a skin graft from her leg, but will not know until he does it.  So, she'll be in longer than we hoped, but we leave everything in God's hands.  We pray for Ashlyn as she goes under and we pray for the doctor to have steady hands and his gift of medicine to know what to do.  Will update more when we get the next phone call!

2nd Update:  There was a new cholesteatoma that had reformed from the ear drum to the eustachian tube to down deep and back around to the ear drum.  He took out the bones of hearing he had put in a year and a half ago since it was on that and took more skull bone to reform the bones of hearing again.  He reconstructed her ear drum and was able to use ear skin to do.  He had to open up her whole ear again from the back (basically cut her whole ear off to get in there).  This means three months of not getting wet again and repacking every two weeks.  He thinks her ear drum won't collapse this time since there was air back in her ear and he also thinks her hearing will improve more.  Not the news we were hoping for since this will mean a hard recovery ahead of us, but God is good and he will make sure she gets better.

3rd Update:  We are in recovery room now, and of course she wanted food as soon as she started coming to.  She's currently eating broccoli & cheese soup and drinking gatorade. She's such a trooper.  The nurse says that about 90% of patients that get these type of surgeries get sick to their stomach because it's dealing with the inner ear, but this is Ashlyn's 3rd surgery and she's never gotten sick.  See the new pictures at the end of her in the recovery room.  They are making us only stay in post op for 2 hours this time instead of 3 since she's always been good with her post ops.  We're going to drive home afterwards so that we can be back home and with Kaylyn too.

4th Update:  We made it home a little after 4:00 pm.  Ashlyn did pretty good in the car and I kept trying to stay awake.  We stopped about four times for restroom breaks because she had all the IV fluid and drank two gatorades before we left the hospital.  She also had another full meal of fish, green beans, and rice that we grabbed when we left the hospital.  Then we ate dinner at 5:30 pm and she ate all of that too!  Her ear started bleeding around 6:00 pm (what I mean by starting to bleed is that the blood started soaking through the bandage some).  Going to put a towel down on her bed for her to sleep tonight.  We can take the outer bandage off tomorrow and that's when we start to do the ear drops three times a day and place a clean cotton balls in her ear on top of the ear packing.  She's taking amoxicillan three times a day for five days and they're the big capsules.  I got so mad at Jason when I saw he didn't check the pills and they gave us the adult capsules, but I tried it with Ashlyn and she was able to swallow after three attempts.  Awesome!  Good thing we came home though, cause Kaylyn had a lot of homework and studying to do.  It is now 7:30 and we are done with everything and getting the girls ready for bed.  Soon thereafter, I will be going to bed too since I can barely keep my eyes open :-)  Ashlyn's kind of upset though since it ended up being the more difficult surgery because that means she won't be able to join CCA's swim team this year.  It's a good thing we did the summer swim team so she at least got that.

To see info on Ashlyn's 1st Cholesteatoma surgery, click here.
To see info on Ashlyn's 2nd Cholesteatoma surgery, click here.

Ashlyn in the pre-op room

In the Holding room

Ashlyn & Dr. Farrior

Before silly medicine

After Silly medicine

 

In Post Op

Eating an entire bowl of broccoli & cheese soup

What's happening with Ashlyn?

So, we went to the ENT for Ashlyn's normal ear check-up a few weeks ago.  There was stuff in her ear that he needed to clean out and it was pretty "crusty".  He could not get it all and said there was an air pocket that hadn't healed in her ear drum and he couldn't see way down behind it and said that we needed to make an appointment with her ear doctor in Tampa.  Last week she went to Tampa to see him and he cleaned as much as he could, but she was screaming and he was afraid that she would move.  He suggested putting her under to get in there clean it out and fix some things.  The air pocket was going all the way back to her eustachian tube, which is where the cholesteatoma started previously and he is worried that another one may try to start forming.  Depending on how the ear drum looks with that air pocket, he may need to do another tympanostomy reconstruction (ear drum reconstruction), which would require another skin graft from her other leg.

On top of all that, her orthodontist has her mouth at severe overcrowding.  It's so overcrowded, the bottom K-9 teeth have nowhere to come up.  So, she wanted to get three baby teeth and four permanent teeth removed.  So, yesterday she went to the oral surgeon and had 3 baby teeth (2 bottom pre-molars and one top pre-molar...she had already the other top baby pre-molar removed at the beginning of the year since it was dying) and two adult teeth (bottom 1st molars) that were buried below the gumline removed.  Her top will have enough room, we think, for the adult 1st molars to come down and then be pulled at a later time.  To do all of this, she took 10 mg of valium an hour before the appt and then was on laughing gas.  The screams started before the shots even were given and did not let up until the last shot was given, which wasn't for about twenty minutes!  I was able to stay in the room until the screaming started and wouldn't stop.  Then I had to sit in the waiting room (although I stood) and listen to the screaming from there.  But, when it was all over, she was happy and content...anybody that knows Ashlyn, knows this to be her character.  Too funny!  So, she is five teeth less today with three stitches (bankrupting the tooth fairy).

Right after we left the oral surgeon's office, we had to head over to meet your teacher day to drop off all the school supplies and turn in some more forms.  Oh boy, Ashlyn was still kind of out of it and emotional from the valium and had bloody gauze sticking out of her mouth!  That poor child had everyone's attention and I had to explain to everyone what she had just been through.  By the evening time, we had to go to parent orientation at the school and the girls were dropped off at childcare and when we picked them up, Ashlyn was jumping and dancing around the room!  I had to actually yell at her not jump around and run around, because she could start the bleeding again.

Today, Jason is driving the girls over to Tampa for Ashlyn's pre-op with the ear doctor and a hearing test.  Not sure if she'll have to do a pre-op over at St. Josephs or not, but wanted to get it done before school since school starts tomorrow.  The surgery will be next Thursday (August 16th), so she'll miss Thursday and Friday of the second week of school.  Please pray for Ashlyn that she will not need an ear drum reconstruction, as that will be a much harder and longer recovery!

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.

December 23, 2011 Day after Ashlyn's surgery

The day after surgery with Kalia at Uncle Chris and Aunt Kara's house.  My niece is so cute! 

December 22, 2011 Ashlyn's Ear surgeries

Ashlyn did really well with her ear surgery. Poor thing is all bandaged up, but she is being a real trooper. It’s a good thing we took her out of soccer because she can’t do any physical activity for about 6-8 weeks.  She’s not in a lot of pain at all, which surprises the doctors.  The funniest thing though...as we were walking out from post-op to holding she was telling everyone good luck and she did the same thing when being rolled out on the bed from holding to the OR.  Too funny!  She gets claustrophobic I think because when they put the mask on her, she said that was when she kicked.  She had a large bruise on the heel of one of her feet and she said it hurt real bad.

One year ago Jason was rushed to the ER from an urgent care doc when he was having chest pains radiating through his back. Turned out to be pneumonia in the bottom of his lung. Well, this year at the same time, Kaylyn was just diagnosed with pneumonia. She's had almost a 103 fever for 7 days straight now diagnosed with strep in the beginning. She also had a cough and the fever hadn't gone away after 9 doses of antibiotic. We saw the doc again yesterday (12/23/11) and she didn't know what it was, but ordered a chest x-ray just in case and some blood work to see if it could be mono. The chest x-ray showed some pneumonia so we started her on z-pack last night. Doc said she should be fever free by Christmas morning. Poor baby had to be isolated everywhere since Ashlyn was having surgery and we stayed with my sister and her 6 month old. She had Motrin at 5:00 am this morning with a 102.7 degree fever.  Hopefully she breaks the fever tonight.  I wish I could help her with her cough though, but she is sounding a little better today (12/24/11)!

 Both ears a few weeks ago.

 Left ear that had the cholesteatoma surgery (this is pre-2nd surgery)

 Left ear pre-surgery

Ashlyn in the pre-op room.

 Ashlyn in the holding room.

Ashlyn with her surgery bears.  They come out of surgery bandaged exactly the same as her!  Really cute.  She named the bears Ashlyn & Tucker :-)

Ashlyn in the recovery room coming in and out of sleep.  Was okay once we were there...she would open her eyes to make sure one of us was there and then she would go back to sleep.  Poor thing!  She did so well though.

Ashlyn's Ear September 26, 2011

So Ashlyn saw the ear doctor today in Tampa for a follow-up/pre-op visit.  She also saw a plastic surgeon to talk about fixing her other ear that was not fully developed when she was born.  He said that he could fix it so that it looks like her other ear.  She had the hearing test before seeing the doctor and we got some really good news from that.  Her hearing has improved from 50 decibels (the last visit) all the way up to 18 decibels!  It’s almost the same as the other good ear!!!  There was something of concern though, her ear has formed an air pocket which is indicative of another cholesteatoma trying to form, but it just means there will be more to fix when he goes back in her ear in December.  He lifted the ear drum a little to make sure it looked good where the air pocket was.  She cried a little, but held still like a big girl.  He said it looked okay, and could be clean because we still flush it with the solution and blow dry it every time it gets wet.  We are going to schedule the surgery for December 22^nd so that she doesn’t miss any school and will be mostly healed before coming back to school hopefully.  We are very excited about her hearing improvement though.

Here’s a funny little side note though:  The plastic surgeon said “Hello, how are you?” to Ashlyn and she responded.  Based on her response, he pulled his little light out and told Ashlyn to open up.  He looked in her mouth and said, oh, she has a submucous cleft palate.  This from someone who saw her for only a minute and hadn’t read her chart yet, whereas an ENT she saw for 6 months who performed a tonsillectomy, partial adenoidectomy, and tubes in her ears couldn’t diagnose her not only with the cholesteatoma that was poking through her ear drum and going towards her brain, but also the submucous cleft palate.  Jason was just amazed and asked how he knew, and he said just from the way she spoke and then for sure when he looked and saw.  Amazing!

Just wanted to let everyone know since some of you were following along through last year when she went through all of this.  She’s doing so well and hopefully with the tutoring and speech therapy we can get her caught up with all the other kids with language quicker than not.  I’m hopeful…look at how far God has brought our little girl so far in such a short amount of time.  It hasn’t even been two years yet.  November 23^rd will be the 2^nd anniversary of our Gotcha Day (the day we met Ashlyn for the first time).

Anyways, hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far!

Ashlyn and I Are Recovering & Easter

First of all, let's talk about Ashlyn's ear recovery. She had her ear doctor appointment in Tampa on Monday. He took the inner ear packing out and was ready to put more in and decided that it looked good enough to keep it out. He suctioned out the remains of the skin graft and other stuff. We have to blow dry her ear 3 times a day (using a tiny funnel and blow dryer). It still cannot get wet. We have an appointment with her ENT here to do a hearing test and check-up on Friday May 27th and if everything looks good we will start flushing it out with a solution three times a day. When this occurs, she can start getting it wet again then. We have another appointment scheduled near the end of June if the hearing test isn't any better to discuss options we can do during the next surgery at the end of the year. So we’re one step closer ;-)

Now let's talk about my recovery. Let's just say, adults better be prepared for some serious pain when getting a tonsillectomy. This Thursday will be four weeks since the surgery. My throat only hurts now when I yawn, and it's not an excruciating hurt anymore. My nose is still a little stuffy, but is slowly getting drier and drier and hurting less and less when knocked into (kids & dog giving kisses). I would hope that in another week, I should be fully recovered, if I'm guestimating my body correctly ;-)

I never got around to posting Easter pictures. We went to Daytona Beach Shores to visit with Nana & Papa at there condo on the river/beach. We had a nice time. On the way home, we stopped at Wai-po and Wai-gongs house to see Aunt Kara one last time before they headed back over to Clearwater. Here are some pictures.

Ashlyn's Ear March 23, 2011

Ashlyn went back to Dr. Farrior today to get the inner ear packing removed and new clean inner ear packing put in. It was bleeding still when he took out the original stuff, but he said it looked good and there wasn't any infection. He talked to Jason a little more about the cholesteatoma (cyst) that was in her ear. He said that it was just pure massive and that there wasn't a place in her ear that it wasn't in. Only 2% of his cases he does not get the cholesteatoma out in one surgery and has to go back in....well, today he said that he had not been confident that he got it all out and he will need to go back in at the end of the year. He said the next surgery will not be as extensive and since he's going back in anyways, if he sees anything he can do to improve her hearing, he will do. He will basically lift the ear drum and if there's any air pockets, that means that there's cholesteatoma left and he will explore from there.

I feel bad that she wasn't diagnosed with this sooner, and if I hadn't been persistent and fired the first ENT and sought out the pediatric ENT, we may not have found it until it caused other severe problems. We are so thankful that we found the right doctor, thanks to my mom's ENT neighbor, to do the ear surgery. He's just that good!

On another note, Kaylyn went to the Southern District Science Fair this morning and had to answer questions with the judges. She didn't place, but there were over 500 contestants...oh well. I think she had fun with the whole process and learned a lot.



I'm just so proud of how smart my girls are. Kaylyn's Straight As (principal's list) and Ashlyn's A/B Honor Roll. This is awesome for Ashlyn seeing as she never attended school before 1.5 years ago and is now getting Bs in reading. The comprehension is still a little behind, but this is due to some of the language barriers that still exist. She got an A in phonics and a B in math too. She's doing awesome! Also, her speech is improving a lot with speech therapy. She's learning to say certain letters the correct way with her submucous cleft palate so that she can be more easily understood. The next big task is checking her eye sight. We've been told by two different individuals that work with her that think she might have some sight issues (reads to close to the books/papers consistently). One step at a time to make my child's life healthier and easier!

God was so awesome in showing us how much we could love another individual that did not come from us biologically. We fell in love with this child almost instantly and to me, there is no difference between biological and adopted. They are loved equally and abundantly.