Queen for a Day!

Katie was thrilled to be crowned Queen at Dixie High's Senior Ball on Saturday night!  Here are a couple of pictures - you can see how excited she was!  Of course, it was too much activity for a gal with a facial infection, and she has paid for it dearly today, with increased pain, to the point it affected her vision.  But she'll remember this day of fame for her entire life!

Teeth

Hi, All – the predicted demise of Katie’s teeth is progressing.  She has been in terrible pain for several days, but it’s been building for several weeks.  There is another tooth that has failed, and there are no other options than to remove it.  Fortunately, Dr. Egbert, whom we saw in SLC last Thursday, thinks there is enough bone to implant a couple of posts to at least give her two or three molars on each side to chew on.  Previous dentists had concluded that her bone density was too low to handle implants, but they didn’t have the expertise of a prosthedontist, so we’re hoping Dr. Egbert is right, AND that the implants will be adequately solid and correctly placed to hold some front teeth too, for appearance’s sake.

Katie is on antibiotics to clear the infection caused by the bad tooth, so hopefully that will reduce the pain.  She’ll see our good, wonderful dental coordinator, Dr. Christensen, tomorrow, so we can get the tooth extraction scheduled for next week. So please pray with intensity that we can get some implants to take hold so she can have teeth.  We were so disappointed that the prosthetic jaw wasn’t an option, because that would have given a good, strong foundation to at least her bottom teeth.  But, come to think of it, it wouldn’t have done anything to help the top teeth, so this is the route we would have had to go anyway.

This continues to be a very stressful thing for our little family here on Charbonne Dr.  We’re counting on your faith, combined with ours, to first, reduce her pain; and then, to allow the implants to take solid hold.

Thanks.  We love you all very much

Professional Photographs

See our photographer's pictorial account of Katie's New Ears Day:
http://amymonroyphotography.com/2013/08/21/utah-event-photographer-k-s-new-ears-day/

KSL Report

KSL finally aired the piece tonight on Katie's ears!

KSL News

Ken from KSL contacted me tonight; the story on KT's ears will be aired this Thursday night during the news at 10:15 pm (approximately). You can watch it live at that time on the internet at http://live.ksl.com/scheduler/embed-view?cid=KSLHP_channel

New Ears Day!

A MOST UNBELIEVABLE DAY 

IN THE LIFE OF KATIE

Paul Tanner putting on the final touches Friday.  Note: KT was not allowed to see the real ears until he was completely done.

Once he was finished, Katie was allowed to turn around and see her final ears for the first time.  The photo above and below captured her reaction from two different camera angles.  You can just SEE the joy in her soul.  It was a very emotional moment for all of us!

 Then, she got to hang some earrings on those new ears!  This is where joy intersected with pure pleasure.  

By the time we got home, Grandma had posted this sign in the front window of her house, declaring it a HAPPY NEW EARS DAY!  There has been nothing but rejoicing since.

Day 2 of Ear Week

We spent a long day at the Huntsman Cancer Institute where Paul Tanner's medical artistry is practiced.  Katie didn't mind the tediousness of all the aligning, adjusting, and talking to the news crew.  These wax ears are just preliminary, but even so, it was an emotional event to see her with ears on the side of her face for the first time ever!  Katie was all smiles, especially as she hung her first set of earrings to see how they looked. Friday will be another long day to finalize everything.

Ear Week!

CLICK ON THE PIX FOR LARGER VERSION

This blog episode is all in pictures.  I hope you can follow the process.  




It's pretty fascinating!   Katie is EXTREMELY excited about these ears!  The surgery to expose the new implants from under the skin went very well yesterday. She has only had a small headache today.  KSL TV will be airing a special segment on Katie getting her ears this weekend.  We'll post the time when we find out.

Significant Headache

This isn't a very appealing photo, but we thought it would be good to document the prosthetic ear process.

A total of FOUR posts were implanted into her skull on the right side; only 3 on the left.  The top post, which was done through a completely different process, is to hold her right-side BAHA (Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid), so she'll have bilateral hearing.  (She already has a BAHA on the right side.)  This post is capped with a plastic cover, and will take 3 months to heal before a hearing aid can be hung on it.

THREE posts were implanted on each side of her head to hang her prosthetic ears upon.  These were surgically implanted into the bone, and then covered with her own skin, where they will heal in a protected environment for less chance of infection.  These will heal in only 6 weeks, at which time they will cut holes through the skin to allow the posts to protrude.  They will then attach screw-like ends to them, which will then hold the "snap-on" ears on.

The other incision was to remove her misplaced ear "nubs" that she was born with.

KT is hurting pretty badly still, 5 days after the surgery.  We thought this would be not quite so significant a surgery, but I guess you can't expect 7 new holes in your head to NOT cause a headache!  We're hoping the pain starts subsiding soon.  She received a blessing from our Bishop this afternoon.  Please pray for her!

- Glenn

P.S.  KT has started her own blog to express what it's like to live with TCS (Treacher Collins Syndrome).  http://strollimysoles.blogspot.com/

She's Holier Now!

As KT woke up from the anesthetic yesterday, she said, "I'm holier now." At first, I thought maybe she'd had an out-of-body experience, or something.  But then it quickly came to me that she was making a good, old-fashioned Whicker joke!  With 7 new holes in her head after yesterday's surgery, she certainly is "holier" than she was before!  It was nice that she had such a good sense of humor right out of the chute.

The humor didn't last very long, though. This turned out to be a harder surgery than we had anticipated, and she had a rough night, though, thankfully, it wasn't in the hospital; it was in the comfort of Grandma's home. The pain meds only lasted about 3 hours, so we had an hour of pretty intense suffering each time they wore off before she could have any more.

The bandages will be changed on the 3rd day by Pam, then every day for the next 4 days.  The problem we didn't anticipate is that she cannot get her hearing aid on with the bandages as they are today, so she'll be deaf for these few days, and she does NOT like that!  She wants to be in on everything, and going without her aid is a worse sentence than anything else she can think of.

This morning, at about 9:00 a.m., she said she felt a little bit better.  So maybe we'll be able to enjoy the 4th of July a bit.  She was so excited about this surgery, and none of us expected it to be quite as rough as it has been for the last 24 hours.  But now, we're on the upswing, and once she can get her hearing aid back on, she'll be a happier camper!  Thanks for your prayers and love!

- Glenn