Picture of the Heart and what was done to Jason's

Here's a good picture of the heart and shows which parts of Jason's heart were replaced:

Friday June 21, 2013 - Shand's visit (First Post-Op)

Let me start by going backwards a couple of weeks so that you know what we've been through up until now.  Friday, June 7th, we went to the ER because Jason was still running a low grade fever (between 99.7 and 100.6).  The cardiologist at Shand's didn't understand why he was still running this, so he wanted us to be safe rather than sorry.  We went to Holmes Regional's ER and got them in contact with Jason's cardiologist (Dr. Moguillansky) at Shand's.  They did some x-rays and lots of bloodwork, including blood cultures to see if there were any infections.  Everything came back to okay (still low on blood, but is expected for such a major surgery).  So we went home after a couple of hours.

Then Saturday, June 15th, his heart started pounding in his chest.  He felt like his heart was going to pound out of his chest.  His vitals were normal, but if you placed your hand on his chest and felt it pounding, it didn't feel normal.  After a quick text to Jason's cardiologist, his recommendation was go to the ER.  Even the triage nurses were taking turns feeling at the Holmes Regional ER.  It turned out that his Potassium was too high which was probably causing the pounding to feel worse.  He stopped taking the Potassium supplement that was prescribed to him.  The next day I made him drink, and drink, and drink lots of water (I think he drank 6-7 bottles of water) to flush out the Potassium and bring it back down to a normal range.  As that day went on, he started to feel better and better.

The next blood work that was done showed his Potassium to be within the correct range and his INR was 2.5 (finally within range), and he was feeling better.  Still tired, but better.  Then something miraculous happened a few days later!  His fever finally broke for good on Thursday, June 20th and he felt really good that day...thank God!

So, on Friday, June 21st, we headed up to Gainesville for Jason's first cardiologist visit after leaving the hospital.  He was still fever free!  As soon as we got there, we went to radiology to get the two chest x-rays.  Then he got his blood drawn, had an EKG, and eventually had an echo.  After a little while later, the doctor came in to see him.  Everything looked good!  Sometime between the last ER visit and that day, the effusion around the heart was gone!  I believe everything got better when he flushed the one day with so much water.  I think it flushed the infusion right out of him which caused his fever to break.  His INR was still 2.5, his Potassium was 4.7, his blood was still a little low, but very slight.  Because his blood was a little low, his iron was low and his platelets were a little elevated.  Doctor told us to stop avoiding greens and to adjust the Warfarin levels around his normal eating habits.  Because the effusion is gone, he could stop the diuretic.  So the only medications he is on now is Warfarin and baby aspirin.  In another 2 months, he can drop dosages of Warfarin because his INR will be allowed to be between 1.5 and 2.5.  Then hopefully in 6 months to a year, he can be off it altogether and only be on baby aspirin and Plavix.  He also got the okay to go back to work on July 8th, which he'll be allowed to drive at that point also. 

Thank you everyone who prayed for Jason and our family!  Your prayers were definitely being answered!  Please keep praying for a continuous healing process with no more complications (not sure I can handle any more).

May 23, 2013 - Update 3 for Jason's Heart Surgery

Jason's out of surgery.  Because of the heart valve replacement  and his aorta being so thin in some areas, they ended up doing the Bentall procedure (replaced entire aorta with graft) and the valve is the On-X Mosaic which could be a lifetime heart valve.  There's also a study that just came out on it to have minimal coagulants and another study in the works to be off coagulants and just be on aspirin and Plavix.  He's already off the ventilator, which is really good and the thing he worried about the most.  His chest tubes are also only in the front and none at the sides which is less painful.  The doctor is hopeful that his recovery will be quick and everything looks really good.  The reason they had to replace the valve was it was leaking in a bad way and they couldn't get enough blood to flow through the heart to stop it, so the only option was to replace it.  His aorta was thinned out a lot in some areas really bad, so the operation was definitely needed.  They said the possibility of using the heart valve he had would be 80-90% over the next 2 years and only 50% over the next 5, so it was inevitable to replace the valve.  We are still waiting to go back and see him.  There doing chest x-ray, bloodwork, etc... which is called tucking him in.  That is all I have for now.  Please keep praying for him to recover and have no complications.

May 23, 2013 - Update 2 Jason's Heart Surgery

Just got a call that they got into his chest and the bicuspid valve was leaking worse than they thought and looked worse than they thought.  They are going to replace his valve with a mechanical valve called the On-X http://www.onxlti.com/heart-valves/patient-guide/available-options-for-heart-valve-replacement/  This is kind of upsetting and I sort of lost it.  This was a quick decision we made right before surgery for a "what if", never actually thinking it would come to this.  Please continue to pray for him!  They will call again when they get him on the bypass machine and I will update again when we know more.

May 23, 2013 - 1st Update on Jason's Surgery

So, we had to be at Shand's Hospital (or as it's called now, UF Health) at 6:00 am.  Jason was taken back around 8:30.  They gave him happy drugs right after taking him back.  We had to talk to the surgeon and decide if they had to replace the heart valve that is leaking, which heart valve replacement procedure would we prefer.  The choice was an artificial heart valve where you'd have to be on Coumadin for the rest of his life, but it would be at low doses, or get a tissue valve replacement which has an average lifespan between 10 and 20 years.  After a long deliberation, we went with the artificial heart valve, but hopefully it won't come down to having to replace it.  They said they would call us around 11:00 when the bypass machine is started (pumping blood to vital organs while they work on the heart).

May 21, 2013 - Heart Catheter Procedure

After getting up, me grabbing a bite to eat from McDonald's, we headed to the hospital.  As soon as we got there, the head nurse that had told us the surgeon had cancelled the surgery met us and gave us some news.  She told us that the surgery was most likely back on for either tomorrow or Thursday with 90% certainty.  So, we were excited again, but Jason was also overly nervous again.  Little bit of an emotional roller coaster with this, but God knows what he is doing.

They took us back pretty quickly and got things going.  We decided not to have Jason do anesthesia, but do sedation instead, and what really ended up happening is the anesthesiologist just gave him the relaxation medicine, which doesn't last too long in your body.  So, he doesn't remember them shaving his leg or feeling the needle going in his leg to numb it, but he remembers the catheter going in and being wide awake and responsive.  He asked the doctor lots of questions during the procedure and watched the catheter on the monitor.  He said he felt his heart flutter every time the catheter touched it.  As soon as they brought him back to the recovery room, they came and got me and he got to eat lunch.  Before his 3 hours were up for laying down, ensuring the artery stopped bleeding, we got a call saying the surgery was a definite the next two days and about 10 minutes after that we got another call to say that it was back on for Thursday morning and we had to be there by 6:15 am. 

While in the recovery room, we asked a few of the nurses about hotels since we were going to have to make another reservation and we actually found one that was cheaper and more comfortable.  Not sure how we'll sleep tonight, but hopefully peaceful and we get to sleep in since we don't have to be at the hospital tomorrow.  We're meeting a friend for breakfast I think and a friend for lunch, so it should be an easy going day.

May 20, 2013 - Jason's Pre-ops up at Shand's Hospital and Cardiology Clinic

So, we headed up to Gainesville today for Jason's pre-ops.  The first one is at 12:30 pm at the Cardiology Clinic.  While we wait for the EKG person to come in, the heart surgeon's head R.N. came in and asked if we had been told yet.  We obviously said no, and it turned out that Jason's surgery had been cancelled for Thursday and wouldn't be rescheduled soon.  We were very upset, but were told that it was for a baby that was born and needed heart surgery.  The one thing we did try to emphasize was that our insurance was starting over July 1st and we would probably have to pay $12,000 out of pocket for all the expenses that this was going to be (we already met this out of pocket maximum for this policy year).  Also, timing-wise, there were other things to consider.  She immediately emailed the surgeon and he replied back that it had to be in June then.  But because we were already up here, they wanted Jason to continue with the heart catheterization procedure the next day, which had to be done before surgery anyways.  Also, do the other pre-op for the surgery because it is good for 30 days.  This way, if the surgery is scheduled last minute, we would be good to go!  So we went to the hospital and did the anesthesia pre-op for the surgery.

After all the pre-op stuff, we headed to the hotel and checked in along with cancelling the rest of our stay.  Jason was disappointed that it was pushed out further and we were going to have to cancel all the short term disability paperwork and start over with a new date.  But, we thought, this must be for a reason!  We went to dinner and while we were at dinner, the heart catheter doctor called and said we wouldn't be able to come in when he told us.  We thought he was going to cancel too, but just told us to come in an hour later than was planned, 8:00 am.  The hotel was pretty uncomfortable with the air conditioner that barely worked and the bed that was sort of uncomfortable.

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!

January 20, 2012 4th Post Op for Foot

On Friday January 20th, I went to check if the pin was ready to come out and to get the fourth bandage change.  Guess what...the pin was finally ready!  Woot, woot!!  When he wiggled it, it did not hurt at all.  When he pulled it out, it didn't hurt, but I felt a lot of pressure.  It only bled a little.  Then he took x-rays to make sure it was healing up properly before he could tell me if I could start bearing weight on it again.  The x-rays came out so well, he said I could bear all my weight on it if I could stand it.  After finally seeing the post op x-ray, I finally saw exactly what he did to my foot...ouch...it was a lot more than I thought.  Not only did he cut the bone on the side of the foot that was sticking out, but he actually cut my entire big toe bone off and moved it to be straight and the pin was placed in to hold it straight until the bone healed in place properly.  As the bone healed, it pushed the pin out of the bone and when it was completely pushed out of the bone, it was ready to be pulled out.  So 3 weeks and 2 days it took for my bone to heal.  The pin was about 2 inches long inside the foot.  Jason forgot to take a picture of that.  They asked me if I wanted to take it home and I said, "no thanks!"  I started walking with my crutches and bearing weight on my foot, but my muscles were seizing up on me...they hadn't been used in over 3 weeks and they did not like being used again.  I'm sure this will get better with time.  My goal is to be off the crutches and just use the walking shoe starting Monday.  We'll see if that happens or not.  That night after the pin came out they told me it would start to hurt because the pin came out and they bandaged it to pull my big toe to the right to be straight.  Well, they weren't lying.  Around 4:30 pm the pain started becoming intense, so I took one pain pill.  Around 5:40 pm the pain was getting more intense so I took another.  The pain pills were not touching the pain, so every 5 hours until 4:00 am, I would take two pain pills.  It is now 3:00 pm the next day and I have not had any pain medicine since 4:00 am.  I think the pain is settled down and they told me I would feel relief today, and so I am.  I went to Michael's to get some supplies for Kaylyn's science project board and did okay walking around with my crutches.  I tried to be bold a few times and not use my crutches, but I would almost collapse, so I'll wait a little longer for this ;-)

3rd Post Op for Foot

The third post op visit for my foot was on Friday January 13th. Visit was to to see if pin was ready to come out and change the bandages. Unfortunately, the pin was not ready to come out, but is definitely getting closer. Notice in the first couple of pictures how close the pin is to the skin and then the doc came in and moved it as shown in the last picture really well how it is no longer close to the skin. Ouch...could definitely tell the pin was still in the bone. Tried to go without a pain pill that night...biggest mistake ever. No sleep because the pain became intense and ended up taking the pain pill at 2:30 am, but it was too late. Every time I would finally start to doze, I dreamed I was walking on my foot in pain. Pin should come out next week though, so hopefully I will be scooter free after next Friday and be able to walk some on it.

Later that evening we had some friends, the Hare family, come over that just moved into our neighborhood.  We got some barbeque from Smokey Bones.  Jason got the bright idea to warm up the food in the oven.  Well, that would have been fine except the food was all in styrofoam and paper.  Well, the styrofoam melted and the paper started to burn.  Luckily nothing caught fire and the meats were all in the paper that was in the styrofoam, so none of it melted on the meats.  The corn and beans were a different story.  Nobody ate those except Jason, even after we warned him of the dangers.  It was a really fun evening and the kids had a lot of fun playing together.

Friday January 6, 2012 2nd Bandage Change

Before going into detail about my doctor's visit today, let me tell you about Kaylyn & Ashlyn.  Kaylyn had her post pneumonia check up today with her pediatrician.  She still hears a little cracklin in her left lung, but sounds like it's on the mend.  So the doctor asks if everyone else at home is healthy...and of course I say yes.  Then I went to drop off Kaylyn to GEMS and I see Ashlyn looking miserable, as if she just cried, at GEMS.  At the end of GEMS I felt her and she felt really hot, so I told Jason to drop by with the thermometer and tylenol.  She of course has a 102 fever and her throat hurts and she has green snot.  So Jason takes her to urgent care since it is now 5:00 pm and waits for 2 hours to be seen.  They do a strep culture, but automatically prescribe amoxicilin because of her heart murmur anyways. Still waiting for the results of the strep test as of Saturday morning as I'm writing this, but luckily she reacts well with Tylenol and it keeps the fever down, unlike Kaylyn.

I went to go get my 2nd bandage change & stitches removed.  They tugged on the pin to see if it was ready to come out yet.  It becomes very loose when it is ready, and mine was a little loose.  So another week with the pin, but the sutures came out.  Have to go without bearing weight on my foot for another week until the pin comes out.  Since the crutches started really irritating my sides, Jason went out during lunch last Wednesday and came back with a knee scooter.  I prop my knee up on the scooter and push it around with my good leg.  It is very embarrassing because everybody sees me on it and laughs along with questioning the usage.  All my co-workers want to "pimp my ride".  I don't care that much though because it is way more comfortable to use than the crutches!  I'll have to post a picture of me on the scooter so you can see it.  Pain is better, but I can feel the pin constantly tugging and moving, which is apparently a good sign meaning the bone is healing and trying to push the pin out.  If I don't keep my foot elevated enough during the day, my leg & foot swell some.  Dr. Wilson is a very good podiatrist if anyone else is looking at doing this surgery.  After the pin comes out hopefully next Friday, I can start bearing weight on my foot again and will only have bandages on for one more week after that (since there will be a hole in my foot from where the pin once was).  I still have some numbness in my big toe, which will most likely come back within a few months.

 I can't wait to wash the yes off my foot! Taking stitches out, which was a little painful on some

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.

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 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.