Three Years Ago

I decided to walk down memory lane a bit and look what we were doing just three years ago! It's hard to believe all the AVT, the cop drama, and who can forget the hamburger/vegetable dilemma?

Click here to see us 3 years ago in July 2008

Six people

6, yep, that's how many people it took to hold my Angel down after she came out of surgery this morning. She just wanted her MAMA! It only took a few minutes to complete the surgery and we were by noon (ish). As you can see, prior to going back, the happy medicine did it's THANG! YAY.

They were certain to used a laser type instrument instead of the ENT's traditional method of removing tonsils due to her being a cochlear implant patient. Now, if we can make it through recovery (so far so good) we'll be fine. She'll have to remain on the 'disabled' list as far as the wild fun Blakely kid kinda activities such as fighting, screaming, swimming, cheering, fighting, and fighting....the main thing is to keep her blood pressure down during this recovery time.

Aside from pain, so far her only complaint is being HOT. She's a sweater anyway but until all the sedation wears completely off (and morphine) she keeps saying how hot she is. BUT NOT TO WORRY! Gage has spent the last fifteen minutes making her a hand-held fan out of legos so she can simply turn the crank and cool down (ha).

Rabbits

So the Blakely rabbits fell in love and had babies this week. Out of six, we only have one survivor. This has really upset B (see story here). She wakes every morning and the first thing on her mind is, is the baby still alive?

Well, this morning, I got up and went to check on it, it was alive, so she wouldn't have to race out there first thing. So when she popped her little eyes open, I was able to tell her it was still alive. She did eventually go out and check anyway, she had to feed the parents (one of her duties). When she came back inside, I was putting my contacts in (with the bathroom door open) and I heard her ask, "Since it's still alive, does that mean it'll stay alive?"

I broke into this well thought out explanation. I explained how nothing will live forever, I went into a lengthy religious spill and did my best to cover as much as her little 7 year old brain needed to know. When I exited the bathroom, contacts in place and closing my informative speech, she looked up at me with big blue eyes and said, "Are you talking? I can't hear you!"

She hadn't even put her ears on yet. Sometimes, the seasoned parents even forget!

Cheer Crazy!

 I forgot to mention here (I put it on my other blog) about VBS. The kids loved it. They had a great time with other kids! Brook attended every day and couldn't get enough of the singing! She and her friend "A" here have A LOT in common and they will be CHEERING together too! I am an Assistant Coach for the team of OVER 20 GIRLS! Today, the Head Coach and I are going to get together and work on the dance routine! That's right, this little cochlear implant child will be dancing with her hearing peers and doing jumps and doing cheers and chants...I can't wait...she can't wait! I am teaching jumps to all three cheer groups at camp so I'm going to stretch now! I'm down to a week and a half and I've not practiced the first one! I do have backup ways of teaching in case I can't do it or break a foot or whatever.

Gonna be so much fun!

Cheaters

So Brook's foot is so much better! It's completely healed, although the skin isn't nice and perfect yet, it's pealing quite a bit but after the damage she suffered, it's expected. She's even back in the pool which is fantastic since next week is her surgery and she won't be able to get in for a while after that.

The ENT's office called and informed me she will not be tested for Angioedema while she's asleep. They aren't allowed to perform routine lab screenings under sedation anymore so we'll test her later. She's still on schedule for next Wed. for the tonsillectomy and adenoid removal.

Now the story...
So Brook and I are in the pool yesterday, and she was bored and tired of pulling me slowly around while I rest lazily on the float so we came up with a game. Now remember, she doesn't hear anything while swimming (and no we aren't interested in the waterproofing of the implants). The idea was for us to take turns on the float, lying with our eyes closed, and have the other person turn us around and around and around and then we point (eyes still shut) in the direction we thought the house was located. If you get it right, you get lots of cheers and praise while a wrong answer would earn you a thumbs down. I'm talking big fun here! lol

It only took me two turns to realize I was cheating without meaning to. I could hear the filter which is on the side facing the house and since I couldn't turn my ears off, I had to pretend to give wrong answers from time to time.

After Brook had a few turns, she smiled and confessed, "Mama, wanna know a secret? If you just feel the sun, you can tell where the house is." And she smirked and giggled because she too was accidentally cheating. It was about 2 o'clock and the sun was actually right over the house at that time. She couldn't cheat with her ears, but could with her skin.

If you haven't noticed, I have other blogs as well that aren't about hearing loss.  The Road (click here) and One Brick Shy (click here)

Improvement

We are very pleased at how her foot is now healing. The Zyvox seems to be working well and since the wood removal she's in no pain, she can walk with both feet, and I'll bet she'll be swimming by week's end.

She's still on schedule for tonsillectomy on July 27 so we are 10 days away from that. Hopefully she'll get to swim some because she loves the pool. She's hasn't been able to swim for weeks with 'the foot'. After her surgery, she's not to swim for like 2 weeks I think so we hope to get her there soon!

Although with a higher 're-bleed' risk, we expect no problems with this upcoming surgery which will be done via laser rather than traditional way. Our ENT is our CI surgeon so he immediately knew what tools he could/couldn't use during the operation.

Warning-graphic photo

I can't believe there was that large of a piece of wood still in the child's foot. She took it out herself! It was almost an inch long and pretty darn thick. She's left with a large hole but combined with the meds, I am very confident she can now heal properly. No wonder she was hurting, infected and could hardly walk!

The meds had already started clearing up the infection by lunch today and now that she's wood free (hopefully)...she's a happy camper. Oh, she also lost 2 teeth today. Poor child has pulled several things from her body today.

**Update**
five minutes later, she pulled out another piece...much smaller at about half an inch and thinner.......wow

Bullet Updates

Just a few quick updates on the Blakely Folk

• The kids love Vacation Bible School-who knew that I'd reach a point in time that my deaf children would simply go up with the other children in front of lots of watchful eyes and sing songs (correctly) without any intervention from me? I prepped the church none and tonight is the big finale...can't wait!
• Brook saw her pediatrician about her foot. If this last oral antibiotic doesn't do the trick we'll have to see a surgeon who will either put her on IV antibiotics perhaps or do surgery. Surgery will be the most likely solution to make sure no other foreign objects remain. Let's just pray the meds work and we can avoid an additional surgery.
• Brook is still scheduled for tonsil/adenoid removal on July 27
• I am helping coach cheerleading ages 8 and under. We have 20 to 23 girls, this should be fun! I am currently working on a dance routine, my jumps (since I'll be in charge of jumps at cheer camp-for all ages up to 12) but my cartwheels still ROCK! lol-I think Brook is going to love cheering!
• Gage is doing well, no weird symptoms, problems or anything to speak of. His ADHD meds are working fine, he has MAPping again on Aug. 5 and SCHOOL STARTS ON AUGUST 15 !!
• I need to get back to the gym.....seriously!

Surgeries

Well, looks like poor Brook may be requiring more than a tonsillectomy this month. Her little foot hasn't got any better, in fact it's worse. It's very infected and I doubt that it can wait another 2 1/2 weeks on her tonsil removal to be cleaned, drained and explored. I'm calling a pediatric surgeon as per the ER and our ENT and see what they say. We may be making some unplanned trips to Children's this week, but my baby needs to be able to walk!

Her wound has doubled in size overnight and I'm simply pacing the floor til I talk to a surgeon. After our less than pleasant ER visit a few weeks ago, let's pray they put her to sleep...however, looking at it now, there's pretty much no question about that, she'll have to have something done in the next couple of days!!! EWWWW

I thought all we had this week was Vacation Bible School....