Esther's Tonsilectomy

 Esther underwent surgery on January 7 for having her tonsils and adenoids removed.  She had this done at Children's Hospital in Seattle.  It went amazingly well.  I'm so glad we did have it done there as she did struggle a lot with post-surgery pain.  They were amazing there.

We arrived a little early, but they said that the surgery team was ahead of schedule, so we didn't wait long.  Esther got to look at the fish tanks (her favorite thing to do at Children's), and play on the Wii with her daddy for a few minutes and then we were called back to the prep room.

In the prep room, we talked with them about her allergy to polyester (all the gowns there were polyester), and we decided it was best for her to just wear the shirt she had on through the surgery.  We were fine with that as it was not a new shirt and her comfort was more important than that!

She was actually all excited about everything.  You see, for the past few months we have rarely taken her anywhere in order to keep her healthy for this surgery.  So not only was she "out and about" but she also had mommy and daddy all to herself.

She was loving it!  She loves meeting new people too - she waves her little wave and says "hi" to each new person who came into her room.  She liked getting a bracelet to wear and playing on mommy's new "tablet."

 It had been decided that I would accompany her to the OR, but the "gown" they brought was pants, and I was wearing a skirt.  We decided to have daddy bring her back instead.  She thought it was all just a lot of fun - she had no idea what was in store for her, poor girl!









Here is Esther in a big bed with mommy to comfort her after the surgery.  She was very quiet and groggy at first.  She liked to just snuggle with mommy and watch a movie.

After a little while the nurse removed the IV as Esther had already drank some juice.  They also gave her some ibuprofen   As the morphine began to go away, we noticed that Esther's eyes were all red, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.  We consulted with the nurse and we determined that this was her reaction to pain, so we added Tylenol   That didn't help either so we ended up having to give her Oxycontin in order to get the pain under control.

It was so sad to see her laying there, no complaining but having tears rolling down her cheeks from the pain.  Such a sweet, sweet little girl!

The first day and night were basically keeping her pain to a minimum and trying to get her to drink.  At first it went well, but the next morning it was a little difficult to get her to drink or eat, so we tried a Popsicle   When Esther was little, she had problems with aspiration due to swallowing difficulties, so she was never given a Popsicle   So this was something very new to her and she really didn't want anything to do with it!

I ended up putting it in a cup.  After a while, I started scrapping off the Popsicle and feeding it to her by spoon, like a slushy.  That worked!

It was just a couple of hours and she was feeling much better and wanted out of bed.  She wanted to leave now.   She even ran out of our room once and I had to chase her down!  We got the go ahead to be discharge, so Daryl took her to the play room for play until the discharge paperwork was done.

She did great on the drive home,sleeping for quite a bit of the ride.

She was thrilled to be home and was very playful for a little while, but she over did it and was very ready to lay low for the rest of the day/evening watching movies!

The first week was tough.  She really needed all the pain meds and developed some really junky breathing.  I used essential oils, both topically and diffused in the room, to help c\open her airways and boost her immunity.  I also was giving her an herbal remedy for immunity enhancement called "Immune Boost 2" that I had ordered from T-Tapp.  We also did breathing treatments for a few days as I did not want her to get pneumonia again!

By day 10 she began to be her old self.  Grabbing her coat and asking to go outside, grabbing an apron and asking to help with dishes and grabbing hands to lead her "helpers" to show them what she wanted to do.  It is so nice to have our old Esther back.. Or should I say "new and improved" Esther back.  She has more energy and zest.  This is good and bad!  Great for Esther, but now we have to be on our toes more to keep her out of trouble!

 I'm so glad we went ahead with this.  You can hear that her breathing is unrestricted.  She sleeping really well at night.  I don't have to diffuse oils at night in her room in order to have her sleep through the night anymore (that gets expensive!).

And best of all - she gets to go out and about again!  We haven't taken her anywhere yet, but tomorrow we are all going to church for the second time since the beginning of September!  I am looking forward to filling an entire pew once again!

Esther Turns Four Years Old!

This past spring we began to notice that Esther snore while she sleeps, and she was waking often to cry a little and go back to sleep on her own.  There were also times when she would wake up in a panic, with a raspy voice, almost like she felt like she was having an asthma attack of sorts.  We talked with her doctor about this during one of her sister, Carese's well child check ups, in July.  We discussed that this can be a sign of sleep apnea, and that her tonsils and adenoids may be enlarged and causing a narrowed airway.

After that I made an appointment with an ENT. But then I tried diffusing essential oils in her room at night and giving her Ibuprophen before bed and the snoring/restless sleeping seemed to abate, so I cancelled the appointment.

Fast forward to October and Esther got a cold - a bad one.  She went from not feeling well Saturday to real breathing problems Sunday night.  We are talking the kind of breathing you can hear from another room that puts a mother into full fledged panic mode.  I was thankful that I had started breathing treatments for Esther the moment she showed signs up being sick, so I knew I had done everything I could and that she needed to see the doctor ASAP!

I took her to see the doctor the next day, after videotaping her breathing during her sleep.  She was diagnosed with having croup, an ear infection and very swollen tonsils. They tested her for strep throat, but thankfully she did not have that. She prescribed antibiotics and oral steroids, and she was breathing better within hours.  But for the first time she reacted to the steroids with a emotional episode...she's never done anything like that before and I hope she won't do it again as it was so hard on both of us.  She was upset and nothing I did seemed to help, but thankfully it only lasted about an hour.

 The doctor watched the little video and said that she definitely has sleep apnea problems, especially when ill.  She made a referal for Esther to see an ENT at Children's Hospital in Seattle and we also talked about monitoring her oxygen during the night while she was sick.   Just that morning a friend had offered to give me her puls-ox machine, so we were all set to make use of that!  Her oxygen levels were fine after that, but I'm hanging onto the puls-ox machine for now.

Add caption

Esther's day at Children's went exceptionally well.  She had two appointments that day - cardiology (I'll blog about that one once we get the final results, but so far so good), and then ENT.  It was determined that her tonsils and adenoids are enlarged when she is healthy, and this is very common in children with Down Syndrome - their tonsils and adenoids are normal size or enlarged, while their airways are small.  The ENT explained that children's tonsils and adenoids grow faster than the airway until they are around 11 years old, so that any child with problems much before that time, the problem will only get worse.

So Esther is now scheduled for surgery on January 7.  We covet your prayers for this in two ways - that she will be healthy in the weeks leading up to the surgery (we are keeping her home from here on out - I don't want her to get another upper respiratory illness and have another night like we had), and that she won't experience any of the common complications that children with Down Syndrome usually experience with this surgery (pneumonia, inability to eat/drink for days, dehydration and others).  Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Now to better news!  Esther got to go to the zoo for the first time - and she loved every minute of it! The otters and penguins really put on a show for her, and she really enjoyed their antics!

Esther turned 4 on September 20 - can you believe it???

Esther is learning new words, and putting words together to make sentences - like "close the door"  and "cookies please"!  She is also learning to take off her clothes, and she tries to put them on too.  This is especially funny when she tries to put on her siblings clothes (and a little embarrassing at times when she selects undergarments!).

She also loves to help with laundry, especially sorting diapers and soakers.  She loves to read books, and points to pictures and says the words if she know them.  She will also point to pictures if you ask her where something is!

But above all, her favorite thing is playing with her dollies.  She loves to play momma, but her favorite thing is to have her dollies hug and kiss, or dance together!

Fun times with Esther and lost photos!

Esther has had some great new experiences in the past few weeks!  First off was going to the Lynden City Fire Department for a tour.  She got to sit in an ambulance and a fire truck and even got to take home a fireman's hat.  She loved all the firemen, but got a bit board when they talked for too long and she tried to run out the big doors...but we caught her before she got very far!

Esther also got to spend two days at the lake, playing in the sand, the waves and exploring our friend's back yard even thought it was a cloudy day and it even rained a bit.  She got really cold, but her sister, Rebekah helped warm her up by putting her in our Ergo carrier on her back and putting mama's coat over them both.  She also enjoyed posing for the camera during our dinner on the deck.

 Riding on her sibling's backs is one of her favorite things to do.  Riding in her car seat is always fun because Esther knows that going in a car/van/truck means going to go do something fun, usually.  When we leave with out her she is so depressed.  She cries and cries.  This trip she was upset about something, but she then consoled herself by her usual way - sucking her thumb.  I know, she's almost 4 years old and it's getting time to start breaking her of the habit, but I just can't do it yet.

Esther also got to go to a birthday party and she sat up at the table with great manners and made her mama so proud!

Esther has many talents that keep us entertained.  The older kids made up some ribbons on sticks and Esther loved to spin them around, especially when she would get two of them.  She was moving them so fast that I decided to try to do a blur action photo and it worked wonderfully.  Her symmetry of motion with both hands was amazing!

At the dentist's office she did so well that she earned a sticker, and it was such an appropriate sticker because Esther smiles so much of the time. Her and her sisters had a lot of fun with this sticker, that is for sure.

Speaking of sisters, Esther has 5 sisters now and she got to have her picture taken with all of them recently.  Three big sisters and three little sisters, isn't that just wonderful?

Esther loves to smile, as I've said before, and she also loves to pose for the camera.  Often she's making funny faces too or making weird poses, but this is Esther through and through!

Recently I resurrected my I-phone and found some photos on there that I had never taken off.  This is Esther when she had pneumonia.  She was 2 1/2 and spent 5 days in the hospital.  I know it was March 12, 2011 that she was admitted because I got to watch all the events unfold in Japan when the huge earthquake and tsunami wreaked such devastation there.  She was one sick cookie!  Since then we have been using breathing treatments whenever she gets a cold and she hasn't had any major problems with breathing when she's sick.

In the next photo you can see when she was starting to feel better and starting to eat again, but you can tell by her eyes that she wasn't herself again yet.  In the next photo you can see that she is ready to go home.  She's cleaning her hospital room!  She was a very busy lady who wanted to get down and play on the floor and take everything out of the drawers.  I knew she was feeling better because she wouldn't be content in her bed anymore!

In these next photos, you can see when Esther fell and cut her head.  She had just learned to walk well and tripped and fell while holding a plastic cup.  Her head landed on the edge of the cup and it cut through right above her eye and left a round bruise under her eye.  She was quite the little trouper at the hospital, but she did not like having the cut irrigated, not one bit. But between Jessica and I we were able to comfort her through it all.