Sunday, April 24, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Girls
It's been a while since I posted any pictures of the girls--at least of Molly and Lexie--so here's some recent ones I've taken.
I was experimenting a bit with some studio lighting one day and was surprised that Lexie actually wanted to be my model! However, I guess the light was too bright for her sensitive eyes!
At least she wanted to pose for me, because the following pictures are usually the type of shots I get from her!
And Molly is my perfect little model when she wants to be (or when I bribe her). She got all fancied up for her Kindergarten music program and actually let me take some pictures of her.
Annie is doing really well since her surgery--the swelling has gone down a lot, but she still has "rocks" under her jaw from where the dead glands are. But we think that is starting to go away too. Her ulcerative colitis keeps us on a roller coaster, but currently she still seems to be doing well off the prednisone. She's over her illnesses, back at school, and as happy as ever! (With much less drool too!)
I was experimenting a bit with some studio lighting one day and was surprised that Lexie actually wanted to be my model! However, I guess the light was too bright for her sensitive eyes!
At least she wanted to pose for me, because the following pictures are usually the type of shots I get from her!
And Molly is my perfect little model when she wants to be (or when I bribe her). She got all fancied up for her Kindergarten music program and actually let me take some pictures of her.
Annie is doing really well since her surgery--the swelling has gone down a lot, but she still has "rocks" under her jaw from where the dead glands are. But we think that is starting to go away too. Her ulcerative colitis keeps us on a roller coaster, but currently she still seems to be doing well off the prednisone. She's over her illnesses, back at school, and as happy as ever! (With much less drool too!)
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Can't Catch a Break!
Annie hasn't been back to school since her surgery a week ago last Wednesday. We thought she'd be able to return to school last Monday as a happy, healthy, and much drier child, but of course life is never that predictable. Annie hasn't been doing very well since about last Sunday. Her salivary gland ablation surgery left her with lots of swelling and thick secretions that have been difficult for her to tolerate, causing almost constant coughing and vomiting bile. We've been suctioning her regularly since surgery, even throughout the night.
However, it was about Sunday when her cough started getting weaker and weaker and she just hasn't been able to clear all the junk that's collecting in her throat. We usually just suction it out, but all the congestion is too deep for us to suction anymore--we just don't get anything. Usually when we suction her, it also makes her kind of gag and cough up what's in there, but we can't even get her to cough or gag with the suction. She's just not her usual self and the weak, congested cough is continuing. Her drooling is almost just as bad as ever, but we're trying to not get too discouraged about that yet since we think she must have some other bug that has increased all her mucous and phlegm.
We met with her GI on Tuesday, originally planning to discuss how to get Annie off prednisone which has been managing her ulcerative colitis. Fortunately, we were able to wean her off the prednisone in preparation for her surgeries, and amazingly enough we've been able to keep her off the prednisone. She still continues to have 1-3 very loose stools a day, but that's a huge improvement from the 8-12 she used to have without prednisone. Blood in the stool has also been absent, even without prednisone, so we're hoping she can maintain this status. The GI did say though that if she has another flare up with more frequent stools or blood present, Annie will most likely have to start taking stronger immunosuppressants--drugs that are typically used for chemotherapy. That's made us very nervous, so we're praying that we don't have to go down that road.
On Tuesday I also had Annie into the pediatrician for her post-op follow-up, her UTI follow-up, and to talk to him about her weak cough, congested airway, and us starting to worry about pneumonia. Her UA showed a possibility that her UTI is still present even after her full 10 day course of antibiotics, so we're waiting to see how the culture comes back. The doctor said her lungs sound ok, like the congestion hasn't settled low enough that she has pneumonia yet, but he's concerned about her. He wanted to start her on antibiotics to help prevent pneumonia, but with the urine culture still pending and the high risk of c-diff reoccurring, I asked him if we could hold off a little longer.
So we should hear today or tomorrow about whether she needs another round of antibiotics for a UTI, and if her cough remains unproductive and weak by next Tuesday, we'll take her for a chest x-ray before considering antiobiotics for pneumonia since those are more likely to cause c-diff. We also have an appointment next Tuesday with her pulmonologist, originally scheduled as her annual CPAP checkup, but it will be nice to talk to him about our pneumonia concerns as well.
And as if it weren't enough to have Annie sick, Justin and I have each battled a short but nasty 24 hour bug this week. At least the snow has finally melted--now I'm just hoping for some blue skies, sunshine, and temperatures to come out of the 30s and 40s. We know to enjoy spring and summer when they eventually come, because in Nebraska they sure don't last very long!
However, it was about Sunday when her cough started getting weaker and weaker and she just hasn't been able to clear all the junk that's collecting in her throat. We usually just suction it out, but all the congestion is too deep for us to suction anymore--we just don't get anything. Usually when we suction her, it also makes her kind of gag and cough up what's in there, but we can't even get her to cough or gag with the suction. She's just not her usual self and the weak, congested cough is continuing. Her drooling is almost just as bad as ever, but we're trying to not get too discouraged about that yet since we think she must have some other bug that has increased all her mucous and phlegm.
We met with her GI on Tuesday, originally planning to discuss how to get Annie off prednisone which has been managing her ulcerative colitis. Fortunately, we were able to wean her off the prednisone in preparation for her surgeries, and amazingly enough we've been able to keep her off the prednisone. She still continues to have 1-3 very loose stools a day, but that's a huge improvement from the 8-12 she used to have without prednisone. Blood in the stool has also been absent, even without prednisone, so we're hoping she can maintain this status. The GI did say though that if she has another flare up with more frequent stools or blood present, Annie will most likely have to start taking stronger immunosuppressants--drugs that are typically used for chemotherapy. That's made us very nervous, so we're praying that we don't have to go down that road.
On Tuesday I also had Annie into the pediatrician for her post-op follow-up, her UTI follow-up, and to talk to him about her weak cough, congested airway, and us starting to worry about pneumonia. Her UA showed a possibility that her UTI is still present even after her full 10 day course of antibiotics, so we're waiting to see how the culture comes back. The doctor said her lungs sound ok, like the congestion hasn't settled low enough that she has pneumonia yet, but he's concerned about her. He wanted to start her on antibiotics to help prevent pneumonia, but with the urine culture still pending and the high risk of c-diff reoccurring, I asked him if we could hold off a little longer.
So we should hear today or tomorrow about whether she needs another round of antibiotics for a UTI, and if her cough remains unproductive and weak by next Tuesday, we'll take her for a chest x-ray before considering antiobiotics for pneumonia since those are more likely to cause c-diff. We also have an appointment next Tuesday with her pulmonologist, originally scheduled as her annual CPAP checkup, but it will be nice to talk to him about our pneumonia concerns as well.
And as if it weren't enough to have Annie sick, Justin and I have each battled a short but nasty 24 hour bug this week. At least the snow has finally melted--now I'm just hoping for some blue skies, sunshine, and temperatures to come out of the 30s and 40s. We know to enjoy spring and summer when they eventually come, because in Nebraska they sure don't last very long!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Ronald McDonald House
Staying at the Ronald McDonald house has been an incredibly huge blessing! What a wonderful place! This Ronald McDonald house here in Columbus is the second largest in the world (next to NYC) and has 80 guest rooms. The guest rooms are very similar to hotel rooms and they just recently got TVs in every room (but no remotes--that's what Justin is for!) There are several "family rooms" or dens that are VERY nice with TVs or massage pillows, etc. There's a gym, a movie theater, a very large library, two large laundry rooms, playroom, and a rec room with a pool table, etc. On the main floor is a kitchen/dining area. There are 8 full kitchens arranged around a large dining area. There are refrigerators and freezers--one of each for every 3 guest rooms. We knew that a full kitchen would be available to us, so we made sure to pack some canned and boxed food that we could easily prepare while here, yet so far all but about 3 meals have been provided for us! Plus all the kitchen cabinets are already packed full of food for the guests.
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| Dinning room circled by 8 full kitchens. |
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| One kitchen area where most of the meals are served. |
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| Pantry area with freezers and guests' food lockers. |
Outside organizations bring in lunches, dinners, and occasionally breakfasts as well. Usually it's a church group of some sort bringing a meal in, but we've also been served by a girl scout troop and an honors society. It has been so wonderful, especially with me being so sick, to not have to worry about preparing something. These volunteers have been so nice and happy, and most of them ask about Annie and what they can pray about for her. The entire Ronald McDonald house is run by volunteers which is pretty amazing, especially considering they have 1-2 people at the front desk 24 hours a day! It takes special people to volunteer such selfless service!
Did I mention that staying at the Ronald McDonald house is completely free of charge? I hate to think how much an 11 day stay at a local hotel would have cost! But before you think we've been TOO spoiled... (well, we really have been very spoiled)... let me explain that we do have our own house responsibilities by being guests here. Guests have to make up their own beds and are responsible for washing their own sheets and towels, taking out their own trash, and cleaning their own rooms and bathrooms. Guests are also responsible for a daily chore--ours has been keeping the library clean. We have to dust the shelves, pictures, and blinds, straighten the furniture and vacuum every day, but since the library doesn't seem to get used a whole lot, it's a pretty easy chore to do. Oh, and if you start a book from their library and just don't get the chance to finish it before you go, no problem, just take the book with you--it's yours. They say they get new books donated all the time. (Although Justin and I packed our own libraries with us, so we haven't needed to grab anything from the library here, but it has made a nice place to go for a change of scenery.)
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| The library |
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| Library |
One rule is that no food is allowed in guest rooms, and I was a little sad about that at first, but it's worked out just fine. There was one night I just wanted to watch a movie in bed and eat popcorn and I couldn't, but the rooms feel so much cleaner than a hotel, maybe because of this rule alone.
It's been interesting to be on the opposite side of so many service projects this week instead of being in the church group usually providing the service. In the guest bathrooms there are even hygiene kits in ziplock bags--I can't count all the times I've helped assemble hygiene kits with my church group for various organizations, and now I'm actually seeing how some of those are used and appreciated. This isn't a hotel, so there's no little bottles of shampoo and lotion--but it's all been made available in the kits that have been donated. Seeing all the ways to serve make me want to help out at our Omaha Ronald McDonald house--I think it's definitely an experience that would be neat to share with our church youth.
One way RMH raises money is by collecting pop tops from soda or formula cans. When Annie was on pediasure, we easily collected 4 pop tops a day, but now we don't seem to come across many with her on a powdered formula (and because we don't tend to drink a lot of pop). But if you feel so inclined, it's an incredibly easy thing to do to help support the Ronald McDonald house. Just collect your pop tops and drop them off at your local RMH.
Here's some other pictures from around the RMH.
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| This is our third floor foyer as we get off the elevator. They clearly love their sports here! |
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| This is a family room on the third floor where Justin spent most his time working. |
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| Family room |
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| The playroom |
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| Another family room--actually called the meditation room. The massage pillows work quite nicely! |
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| A family room in the basement |
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| One of the laundry rooms |
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| Basement playroom |
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| Rec room. The basement is all themed after the Blue Jackets hockey team. |
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| Rec room |
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| Basement hallway |
Here's some pictures of Nationwide Children's hospital. I'm just now learning that not all Ronald McDonald houses are near the hospitals. The ones I've seen before always have been, but I just learned a few days ago that Omaha's RMH is about 50 blocks away from the children's hospital. So we are very fortunate to have the hospital so close. We've been able to easily walk back and forth to grab meals and take naps. Although we made sure never to be out alone after dark--all the workers here as well as at the hospital have made a point to let us know how unsafe this neighborhood is and they even provide escort services to help people walk more safely the short distance between the RMH and the hospital.
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| Main entrance hospital foyer |
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| Left half of Nationwide--the section furthest left (the tallest building) is a new addition that should be open in a year. |
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| The other half of Nationwide |
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| A school collected these pop tabs during the year and brought them in one day for the RMH! The money earned by recycling these pop tabs helps run the RMH and produces enough money to pay the entire electric bill for this 4 story building each month! So collect your pop tabs for the RMH! |
Salivary Gland Ablation, Part 2
Annie had the second half of her salivary gland ablation yesterday. Fortunately this time she wasn't having crazy seizures beforehand. We also explained that she was probably too heavily sedated last week since it took her 3 hours to get out of recovery and then another 4 hours after that before she woke up.
Everything went very smoothly yesterday. We were really hoping that this time the doctor would be able to get into one of her parotid glands to treat it, but he just wasn't able to. He explained that the only way to safely treat the parotids is to find the actual teeny tiny hole in the wall of her mouth where the duct from the gland empties into her mouth, then insert his even tinier tube up into the duct in order to get the solution into the gland that will kill it. Unfortunately, Annie has built up thick flaps of tissue on the walls of her mouth from where she bites her cheeks during seizures. The doctor said Annie has too much tissue cluttering up the area where the duct opens into her mouth and he just can't access the ducts. We asked if he could make a cut in the tissues in order to get to the ducts, but I guess that would put her at too great a risk of having the alcohol solution get somewhere other than the duct and the gland which would kill good, normal facial tissues. His only suggestion for treating the parotids if we feel like she needs them treated, is to have ducts tied off. We obviously aren't going to even consider doing that until we get her well from these surgeries and see their full effect.
Annie was only in recovery this time about an hour and a half and was then taken to her room on the pulmonology floor. Our doctor had told us that if we were comfortable, since she had no major complications last week, he would allow us to be discharged later today. We were extremely excited about that since Annie's hospital room had absolutely no parent bed in it! Annie did incredibly well all day and at 7pm we started working on getting discharged. Finally by 11:15pm we were discharged and immediately went to bed at the Ronald McDonald house.
Annie still has a lot of congestion and thick phlegm, but we're starting to wonder if that's more from a possible cold since her main salivary glands have now all been killed. Her tongue and chin and cheeks are also so swollen that she's just having a hard time dealing with even the smallest bit of congestion and phlegm. She slept fabulously through the night on her CPAP, but has required a bit more suctioning today. We plan to rest today, do our cleaning for the RMH, pack everything up and drive home tomorrow! I can't wait to get Annie all healed and see really how effective this procedure is going to be for her! Hopefully she won't have to wear soaking wet bibs everywhere she goes anymore!
Everything went very smoothly yesterday. We were really hoping that this time the doctor would be able to get into one of her parotid glands to treat it, but he just wasn't able to. He explained that the only way to safely treat the parotids is to find the actual teeny tiny hole in the wall of her mouth where the duct from the gland empties into her mouth, then insert his even tinier tube up into the duct in order to get the solution into the gland that will kill it. Unfortunately, Annie has built up thick flaps of tissue on the walls of her mouth from where she bites her cheeks during seizures. The doctor said Annie has too much tissue cluttering up the area where the duct opens into her mouth and he just can't access the ducts. We asked if he could make a cut in the tissues in order to get to the ducts, but I guess that would put her at too great a risk of having the alcohol solution get somewhere other than the duct and the gland which would kill good, normal facial tissues. His only suggestion for treating the parotids if we feel like she needs them treated, is to have ducts tied off. We obviously aren't going to even consider doing that until we get her well from these surgeries and see their full effect.
Annie was only in recovery this time about an hour and a half and was then taken to her room on the pulmonology floor. Our doctor had told us that if we were comfortable, since she had no major complications last week, he would allow us to be discharged later today. We were extremely excited about that since Annie's hospital room had absolutely no parent bed in it! Annie did incredibly well all day and at 7pm we started working on getting discharged. Finally by 11:15pm we were discharged and immediately went to bed at the Ronald McDonald house.
Annie still has a lot of congestion and thick phlegm, but we're starting to wonder if that's more from a possible cold since her main salivary glands have now all been killed. Her tongue and chin and cheeks are also so swollen that she's just having a hard time dealing with even the smallest bit of congestion and phlegm. She slept fabulously through the night on her CPAP, but has required a bit more suctioning today. We plan to rest today, do our cleaning for the RMH, pack everything up and drive home tomorrow! I can't wait to get Annie all healed and see really how effective this procedure is going to be for her! Hopefully she won't have to wear soaking wet bibs everywhere she goes anymore!
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| Before surgery--our room, even smaller than before with NO parent bed at all! |
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| Before surgery |
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| After surgery |
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| Starting to wake up |
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| The lovely view from our window |
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| We were definitely grateful for a doctor who discharged us early from this room! |
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| Back at the RMH |
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| Napping this afternoon |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Not the Week We Expected!
So here it is the night before Annie's second surgery for her salivary gland ablation and I'm just barely updating our blog! This week has definitely NOT turned out to be how we expected! Annie was finally discharged from the hospital last Thursday evening, much later than we had expected, because she spiked high fevers of 103.8. It took them most of the day to figure out the source of the fever, and we were relieved to find out it was just a UTI. Not something we wanted to deal with right now, but easy to treat.
We've been glad we thought to bring Annie's suction machine with us because we used it several times an hour around the clock for the first several days of recovery and even today are still using it rather regularly still. But generally, Annie has done very well recovering from part one of her salivary gland ablation. I actually caught this little smile last Thursday after we got her settled for the night at the Ronald McDonald house.
We're noticing just a small amount of paralysis on the right side of her face, but that's often expected and almost always temporary, lasting anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months.
This picture below was taken just tonight. She still has a small amount of swelling under her cheek and chin on her right side, but the swelling under her tongue has gone down even more. I was expecting the swelling to be nearly gone by the time they do the left side, but I guess this is good enough!
The big thing that threw us off this week was the flu that hit me Friday morning. I think all my stress and lack of sleep lately have finally caught up with me, although Justin believes I caught a bug at the hospital last week. The floors are on lock-down due to all the cases of flu, especially on the pulmonology floor Annie has to be on, so the visitor policy is restricted, and patients are not allowed out of their rooms for any reason. I thought I was being careful, but not enough, I guess. I've literally been in bed about 95% of the time since Friday. Justin has been wonderful in taking care of Annie as well as me, all while trying to work away from his office. This was definitely not the leisurely vacation we had expected! But today has been looking up and I think I'm finally starting to improve--just in time to go back to the germ-laden hospital!
We're disappointed that we had to cancel some fun plans while we're here. We had planned to attend church nearby on Sunday and visit with a friend from Austin, Texas while she was also here on vacation, but we clearly didn't make it to church! I was especially saddened to have to cancel plans with a friend here who also has a daughter with Aicardi Syndrome. Chances to visit with Aicardi friends are so rare, I was really looking forward to seeing Ronda and Marissa, but of course couldn't take the chance of spreading anything to her sweet daughter.
On Sunday Justin helped me muster enough strength to drive to the Columbus temple. We knew it was in the parking lot of the stake center, but we didn't realize quite how small it would be. It is by far the smallest temple I've ever seen. We thought about how wonderful it would be to have our temple right there so close to our chapel--no excuses for not regularly attending the temple!
Tomorrow hopefully I'll feel better enough to actually take some pictures of the Ronald McDonald house since it's the 2nd largest in the world and has been such a wonderful place to stay. I'll definitely post some updates on Annie as well. She's been rather congested and phlegmy today and has been throwing up some bile, but we're hoping that's just still from the UTI or just trying to deal with her congestion. It would be nice, ideally, to get her a little less junky before surgery, but hopefully after tomorrow she'll have much fewer secretions leading to all this congestion.
On a side note, we found out after her last procedure that her sublingual glands were rather large for her age. The sublinguals are the glands that produce mucous, so hopefully once she gets both sublinguals treated we can say goodbye to all this phlegm and congestion. We appreciate everyone's prayers for Annie and also for me! Please continue to keep her in your prayers as she undergoes her second surgery tomorrow!
We've been glad we thought to bring Annie's suction machine with us because we used it several times an hour around the clock for the first several days of recovery and even today are still using it rather regularly still. But generally, Annie has done very well recovering from part one of her salivary gland ablation. I actually caught this little smile last Thursday after we got her settled for the night at the Ronald McDonald house.
We're noticing just a small amount of paralysis on the right side of her face, but that's often expected and almost always temporary, lasting anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months.
This picture below was taken just tonight. She still has a small amount of swelling under her cheek and chin on her right side, but the swelling under her tongue has gone down even more. I was expecting the swelling to be nearly gone by the time they do the left side, but I guess this is good enough!
The big thing that threw us off this week was the flu that hit me Friday morning. I think all my stress and lack of sleep lately have finally caught up with me, although Justin believes I caught a bug at the hospital last week. The floors are on lock-down due to all the cases of flu, especially on the pulmonology floor Annie has to be on, so the visitor policy is restricted, and patients are not allowed out of their rooms for any reason. I thought I was being careful, but not enough, I guess. I've literally been in bed about 95% of the time since Friday. Justin has been wonderful in taking care of Annie as well as me, all while trying to work away from his office. This was definitely not the leisurely vacation we had expected! But today has been looking up and I think I'm finally starting to improve--just in time to go back to the germ-laden hospital!
We're disappointed that we had to cancel some fun plans while we're here. We had planned to attend church nearby on Sunday and visit with a friend from Austin, Texas while she was also here on vacation, but we clearly didn't make it to church! I was especially saddened to have to cancel plans with a friend here who also has a daughter with Aicardi Syndrome. Chances to visit with Aicardi friends are so rare, I was really looking forward to seeing Ronda and Marissa, but of course couldn't take the chance of spreading anything to her sweet daughter.
On Sunday Justin helped me muster enough strength to drive to the Columbus temple. We knew it was in the parking lot of the stake center, but we didn't realize quite how small it would be. It is by far the smallest temple I've ever seen. We thought about how wonderful it would be to have our temple right there so close to our chapel--no excuses for not regularly attending the temple!
Tomorrow hopefully I'll feel better enough to actually take some pictures of the Ronald McDonald house since it's the 2nd largest in the world and has been such a wonderful place to stay. I'll definitely post some updates on Annie as well. She's been rather congested and phlegmy today and has been throwing up some bile, but we're hoping that's just still from the UTI or just trying to deal with her congestion. It would be nice, ideally, to get her a little less junky before surgery, but hopefully after tomorrow she'll have much fewer secretions leading to all this congestion.
On a side note, we found out after her last procedure that her sublingual glands were rather large for her age. The sublinguals are the glands that produce mucous, so hopefully once she gets both sublinguals treated we can say goodbye to all this phlegm and congestion. We appreciate everyone's prayers for Annie and also for me! Please continue to keep her in your prayers as she undergoes her second surgery tomorrow!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Day One of Annie's Salivary Gland Ablation
We made it to Columbus, Ohio yesterday evening at 9:00pm after a 13 hour drive. We had a room held for us at the Ronald McDonald house across the street from Nationwide Children’s, but we soon learned that checking into a Ronald McDonald house is not as quick or easy as checking into a hotel. First they took us on a tour, then they explained all the rules, as well as the chores that are expected of us during our stay. (Pictures of the Ronald McDonald house coming soon.) We filled out all the paperwork and then were finally taken to our room around 10pm. Then we had to put our sheets on the beds and make up our room.
By then Annie started having more myoclonic seizures even after getting a dose of Ativan in the car for seizures that lasted over 2 hours earlier in the evening. By the time I got her in bed, she started with a grand mal seizure on top of the myoclonic seizures—something I’ve never seen her do. I ended up giving her a dose of Diastat to stop it all, yet Annie continued to have several more grand mal seizures—another thing she’s never done! Diastat has always stopped seizures almost immediately. We starting thinking about taking her to the ER, but she finally calmed down around 11:30pm and we were able to go to sleep.
We woke up this morning at 4:45 in order to check into the hospital at 6pm for Annie’s procedure. Annie had the first portion of her salivary gland ablation surgery around 8:30pm and was in recovery from 9:30am-12:30pm! The doctor injected her right submandibular and right sublingual glands—the left submandibular and left sublingual will be treated next week. He planned to inject one parotid gland today, either the left or the right—whichever he could more easily access. However, the parotid glands are accessed through the inside of her mouth through the duct in her cheek, and Annie has too much thick tissue build up on her cheek walls for the doctor to get to the ducts of the parotid glands. Annie usually chews up her cheek and tongue when she has seizures, so I guess 8 years of that has resulted in really thick tissue.
Annie remained on CPAP and oxygen until about 4:00pm when she finally woke up. She started coughing and struggling with phlegm in her throat, so I took her CPAP mask off in order to suction her. I noticed that without the CPAP she was keeping her oxygen saturations at 95-100%, so we left her CPAP off for the rest of the day while she was awake.
She was pretty alert and content until about 7:30pm tonight when she started growing more irritable. She got some Tylenol since she hadn’t had anything for pain up to that point. Then by 8:30pm they discovered that her temperature had spiked to 103.2! (At about 6:00pm her temp was 97.8). They don’t know what would be causing the fever, so they’re calling a doctor to come check her out. Everything was going so well earlier today—I was feeling so good about all of this and was thrilled at how smoothly everything was going. Now I’m not even sure if we’ll be able to discharge her tomorrow. We appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers for her. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.
Here's a few pictures from today...
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| Wasted even before the procedure--from having so many seizures in the previous 12 hours. |
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| Annie's room. I feel bad I ever complained about the hospital room we were in for 6 weeks last fall. It was a luxurious mansion compared to this, but at least we don't plan to be here long! |
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| Annie on CPAP and oxygen several hours after coming out of recovery. Bruising from the ablation. |
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| Finally awake! |
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| Annie's tongue is the upper portion of what you see. The bottom portion is the tissues under the tongue that normally lay beneath the level of your bottom teeth. She received an injection through that tissue and now it is swollen up well above the level of her bottom front teeth, pushing her tongue to the roof of her mouth. This is clearly why they only treat one side at a time. |
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| Trying to use suction to clear her throat of all her thick phlegm is a little tricky with this much swelling! |
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