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

Driver License

Katie had to renew her driving learner’s permit yesterday, so she got a new picture. The contrast between her last one (a year ago) and this was pretty striking, so I scanned the permit pictures together and have attached them. The old one is quite scratched, but I think you can see the difference pretty easily.

We’ve been pretty discouraged about not keeping the airway we thought we had gained through the summer’s surgeries, and because no progress on getting the teeth to meet was made. In fact, the surgeries messed up her front teeth alignment, and it will take some time to get those back in order. But, as you can see, the shape and fullness of Katie’s face was significantly altered through the surgeries, so we can be thankful for the progress that was made.

Notice the shape of her chin, fullness around the ears, and the cheekbones. She looks great! We’re hoping she can learn to keep her mouth closed because she has such a beautiful smile! BTW, they take the photos now without glasses on because of the new facial recognition software in service.

Just wanted to update you. She is still having some facial pain from the most recent infection, but the swelling and redness is well gone, and we’re hoping the pain is related to the regeneration of nerve tone that was lost during the last surgery.

Thanks for your continued faith and prayers in her behalf.

- Glenn

Here are pictures from yesterday and today to show that the redness has decreased substantially, but the swelling is still there. She's feeling much better, and went to school today. We saw here ENT Dr. Marsden, and Dr. Gordon from Cincinatti also called today. They both say the antibiotics should do the trick, and that she needs to use the Peridex multiple times per day to keep mouth bacteria from backing up through the tract inside her mouth that leads to the new cheek bone material. Anyway, thanks for your prayers, and don't let up yet!

Doing Much Better!

8 Feb 2012

Dear Family,

                I wanted to share how Katie is doing.  An antibiotic was prescribed by Dr. Gordon yesterday.  Glenn tells me that Katie is doing much better this morning.  Her face was bright red yesterday and swollen, today her face is not red, still swollen, but not red.  I asked Glenn to get an ENT appointment with Dr. Marsden in St. George today.  So at 10am Katie saw the ENT doctor, who thought her infection looked like a cellulites infection.  He discovered that Katie has drainage from the back right side of her face into her mouth.  It is one of the places Dr. Gordon entered from the mouth to put bone in her cheek.  Katie says the drainage tastes horrible, but the nasty drainage has moved her to be more regular and particular about cleaning her mouth properly.  This is a monumentous blessing.  I don’t think this kind of motivation would have come any other way! 

                Katie’s continues to have facial nerve pain and her smile has a slight turn up on the right side as well as her brow will arch just a little.  So I was not entirely wrong to believe her nerves were healing and regenerating.  YIPPEE!!!!!!!!  I am wildly excited about this.  The ENT doctor says that it may take as much as a year for the nerves to return to normal.  So she IS going to have her smile back.  I love it!!!!

                It’s time for me to take Mother to see Vada.  So I better go, but I had to tell you the good news.  Thank you for your Love, Faith and Prayers in Christ in Katie’s behalf.  I sooooo appreciate it.  Love Pam

Petition

7 Feb 2012

Dear Family,

                I arrived safely in Logan last night, however this morning I got a call from Glenn, Katie’s face has infection in the right side.  I am just sick about it.  I actually thought the nerve sensations she was experiencing were about the nerve healing.  I feel a bit foolish, but I still have faith that the Lord will bless her with that eventually.  Glenn is awaiting doctor Gordon’s phone call to prescribe antibiotics.  I feel she needs to see the ENT there in St. George.  I don’t know how this will affect my stay here in Logan, I may have to cut it short?  I will see how things progress. 

                I’m asking for your faith and prayers for Katie.  These kinds of infections can result in terrible scarring and a need to go into her face and scrape out all of the bone that was put in there.  Please petition the Lord that Katie will not have to undergo anymore.  Love Pam

Almost Home!

As you can see, her swelling has gone down enough for her beautiful eyes to shine through a bit! We're in Logan, headed south this morning, so we'll arrive in St. George around 7 pm. Katie will try to go to school tomorrow, and since it's only a half-day, she should be fine. Not sure she's quite up to full days yet, but I think the excitement of being back home and being around friends again MAY be enough to get her through a normal day.

We're still fighting some infection on the right side of her face, but this morning, it looks like it is continuing to improve. The worrisome thing about it is that she can't move her right eyebrow, and I'm almost positive I've seen her move that since the last surgery. So we're not sure what's going on there. The bruising on her leg from where the liposuctioned the fat that was used is still pretty bruised as well, but at least she doesn't limp now, so it must not be quite as sore.

We are READY to have this chapter of life over with, at least for a year! And although we didn't make all the goals we were shooting for, we made significant progress and are feeling grateful for that which was achieved. See you all in St. George real soon!