Diving

KT is going in just now for her 3rd of 40 scheduled hyperbaric chamber "dives."  The intent is to force oxygen into her cells via one and a half atmospheres (we live under one atomosphere), to promote healing.  I had this same thing done to help save my leg 4 years ago.  It is a painless procedure; each dive takes 2 hours.  We think we're seeing results already, but can't be sure yet.  She is still in a lot of pain.

We think another tooth needs a root canal, and are trying to convince the endodontist to start that process.  We've also been in touch with Dr. Gordon in Cincinnati, and may have to rush back to Ohio to have him open her up and clean out the infected area.

Please continue your prayers for this suffering little girl!

Love,

- Glenn

Pain

KT is in much pain tonight.  Antibiotics are finished and swelling increasing again.  Prayers, please.

Last Week

Dear Family,

This has been such a stressful week, I have not taken time to update you all on what has been happening to Katie. Sunday we took her into the ER for a facial infection, I think I wrote about that. By Monday, the ER doctor decided to take her off the IV antibiotics and put her on oral ones. That afternoon I got a call from Dr. Gordon, (Her Craniofacial Doctor in Cincinnati). He told me that the infection very likely was caused by the teeth, because he had cut the roots off when doing the Lefort procedure to distract the upper jaw/face. So it just happened that we were very near to her orthodontist’s office, Dr. Prince. So we stopped. All he had to do was pull up her lip and he found an abscess on the right upper side of her mouth. He worked out the puss and sent us to an oral surgeon in the same complex, just down the sidewalk. Dr. Bullock took a panorex and then a 3D picture of her jaw area and found two places where there was infection. He then told us to set up an appointment with an Endodontist, Dr. Starr and to return to the ER and get another CT scan, which would show the abscess areas better this time because the cellulitis, infection, had started to form the puss pockets. So we returned and they spent an hour finding another IV, which was sheer torture on Katie, but finally they found a vein. The CT scan showed the same thing the 3D picture showed. So she started once again with IV antibiotic infusions. She had two infusions morning and night on Tuesday, as well as seeing Dr. Needham, whom we were directed, on Sunday, to make an appointment. Ultimately, we saw so many doctors, yesterday, her pediatric dentist, who confirmed that it was Dr. Starr whom we should be consulting. By the time we saw Dr. Christensen, he knew all about Katie and had conferred with Dr. Bullock about her. There must me a great talking network among the doctors here, we also got a call from her general Pediatric doctor yesterday. Anyway, to shorten this long story, we saw Dr. Starr, the only board certified endodontist in St. George, yesterday. He did a root canal on a tooth, third from the right center, cleaned out puss and debri and put a temporary cap on the tooth. The molar top back right, looks also to be infected, we go in today at 12 noon to see if he can do anything with that one. It is a big problem because she cannot open her mouth enough for the doctor to get a tool into her mouth to drill a hole in it and clean it out. Please pray that the Lord will teach him how to clean the tooth out and relieve the infection. He may have to pull the tooth, but even that poses problems because once again, there is no room to pull it out, the back molars, upper and lower, touch when her mouth is open. I know the Lord can help us and I’m praying for the kind of help the apostle that is a heart doctor had with guidance when he worked on a patient with an enlarged heart and was prompted with every step what to do to accomplish what was needed. I know he can do the same thing for Katie. The Lord will yet Help Katie to have a more normal existence!

We are still planning to go up to Logan on Friday and go through the Logan Temple with Lyndsey on Saturday at 1pm. Looking forward to it and especially seeing Lyndsey and giving her a congratulations hug on getting her mission call.

We send our love and gratitude. Love, Pam/MOM/Grandma

ER, Again!

We found an open abscess in KT's mouth tonight, so the oral surgeon wanted us to go BACK to the ER to see what was going on. We just got home.  They did another CT scan.  It seems the infection was just being drawn to a point so it could be eliminated from the body, but what had us worried is that KT's neck on the right side was hurting, and her shoulder.  Turns out that is probably the lymph nodes doing their job of fighting the infection.  It took them 45 minutes to get the IV in tonight, poking her 7 times - needless to say, KT was VERY distraught, as she hates that! 

In the end, all's going as well as can be expected. She's completely exhausted, and she couldn't eat until 1030 tonight, so she was starving.  This is the last week of school before Spring Break, so she's trying really hard to keep going to school to finish strong, but it's hard.  She has to be back at the hospital tomorrow morning at 7:30 for another IV infusion of antibiotics, so she'll get too little sleep tonight.

Thanks for your prayers.  She has a nurse to watch over her tonight, so that's good. Pam's exhausted from Sunday's activities, and though I tried to get her to go home earlier tonight, she didn't, and now she's going to be in bad shape in the morning too.

Love you all!

- Glenn

P.S. Next weekend, JROTC has a PhysicalTraining (PT) competition in Las Vegas, and we selected the top 6 females and top 6males from our 220 cadets to compete. Guess what? KT made it into the top 6 females in our try-outs! However, she can't go because of this sickness, plus we'll be in Logan for Lyndsey's Temple event. But I was really proud of her -I wasn't involved in  at all, and she won it fair and square. Not bad for a little gal who breathes thru a trach!

Status Update

CT scan today showed no abscesses or pockets of infection, so it appears to be a superficial skin infection?  (Cellulitis.)  They have her on IV antibiotics (roxycin and clendomycin), then sent her home with the IV stent still in so we can go back every 8 hours to get another infusion.  She already looks better, but is wiped out. 

It’s always scary, but I think she’ll be ok.  This is the last week of 3^rd quarter, with spring break starting next week.  And the big airshow here with the Blue Angels.

-        Glenn