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's 4th Christmas Season, Plus Surgery on Monday

Esther had a wonderful Christmas season.  She loved all the fun activities.  She was, however, getting very tired of not going places.  We've been keeping her home to try to prevent her from getting sick.  And so far it's worked!  She loves to go places, so this was a hardship for her.  She would see someone getting ready to go, and she'd get her coat and boots on and get so excited, but end up crying when she was not taken with.  Poor Esther.

So here are some photo highlights of her enjoying the season:

Esther loves to help fill my vitamin organizer.  Elizabeth helped out this time!

Esther frosted one cookie and then went to eating all the chocolate chips!

Esther and Carese opening gifts!

Esther got lots of help opening her gifts!

Esther loves to play in the snow - we even had a white Christmas this year!

Esther loves to pretend to shoot guns, so this gift was a hit
- only problem was that she loved to aim at her daddy, and she had good aim!

She loves the snow, did I tell you that?

Monday we head down to Seattle Children's Hospital for Esther to have her tonsils and adenoids removed.  Please pray that everything will go well and that she'll be home again quickly.

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.

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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!

"Her Heart is Repaired"

Esther sporting pigtails on a Sunday!

Esther, Carese, Daryl and I went down to Children's yesterday for her cardiology appointment.  It's been 2 years since her last appointment!  We left very early (in the car at 6:45) in order to drop some elastic off for a seamstress to pick up, accommodate feeding Carese on the way, and making one stop to get sun glasses for Daryl.  Even with the careful planning and not having to feed Carese until we got to Children's, we just made it with enough time to change her into her nice clothes, comb her hair and put on her braces/shoes before her 10:00 check in time!  I ended up nursing Carese (under my nursing cover of course) while getting our IDs and checking in!

Carese and Esther did amazingly well on the way down.  Carese mostly slept, waking up just before our stop to get sun glasses, so we were able to change her diaper and get he dressed then (I had only changed her diaper before we left, in hopes that her outfit that I'd picked out for going to Children' would still be in great shape when we arrived).  Esther played quietly in the car with her Jessie doll and looking at books.

Once at Children's Daryl got the job of chasing her around, and did he ever have to work to keep track of her. With all that sitting quietly time in the car, she was ready to run and investigate!  The weird thing was that she seemed to know exactly where to go every time we moved.  She even went straight for the "purple doors" that lead to the cardiology wing...but it's been 2 years since she was there!

Her first appointment was for her echocardiogram of her heart.  This is basically a detailed ultrasound of the heart, checking for any possible leaks or problems.  This take about 1/2 hour and she has to lay on a hospital bed during the entire procedure.  She did marvelously!  They do have a TV up high on the wall and allow the parents to select a video for their child to watch.  We picked a cute looking computer graphic cartoon (cute characters, bright colors, but we soon found out that the morals and language was not the best), and it did help a lot to keep her distracted.  Esther's Jessie doll (from Toy Story) was her constant companion, and she also watched the video as well as danced around to entertain Esther (Esther loves to make Jessie tap dance on any surface, as well as having her read books or reading books to Jessie...but her favorite thing is to make Jessie dance with and kiss other dolls, especially the man rag-doll that Rebekah made for her).

After the ultrasound, we headed over to the cardiology room for her EKG (a dozen wires attached all over her body) and she was quite  concerned about this, but she made it through without too much trauma.  Next was getting a blood pressure reading and then a Pulse-Ox reading too.

Next was waiting to be seen by the nurse.  This took about 20 minutes, and required that we pull out my Iphone and let her watch The Incredibles for a while.  The after another 20 - 30 minute wait (during which Carese went to sleep), we finally got to see our favorite Cardiologist, Dr Kemna.  She had cared for Esther all the way back when Esther was home the first time and was going to Children's every two weeks, as well as being on rounds during one of the weeks that Esther was staying at Children's before she had her open heart surgery. Dr Kemna took one look as Carese and said "you are a brave woman" - too funny!  We really like Dr Kemna, especially as she explained to us that Esther heart is completely repaired, unless someone knew that she had undergone a repair, the repair would not even be noticeable in any tests!  She said that Esther didn't need to be seen again for 3 years!  Hooray!

We then went to the cafeteria, as we were all getting very hungry, and had a snack or yogurt and chips.  The last stop was to go up to the lab and get a blood draw for Esther's thyroid screen.  Her pediatrician is now in charge of monitoring her thyroid instead of having to see a specialist (if anything shows up funny, then Esther will go see the endocrinologist again).  This requires having her blood tested every 6 months (down from every 3 months now, yay!).  Since we were at Children's, and they have the best phlobotomists in the world there, I had the lab request send down there and got it taken care of there!  It went well, as usual for Children's lab draws.  During the "poke" Esther was understandably upset, saying over and over "I'm OK, I'm OK" while tears were forming and running down her cheeks.  At one point, she leaned her head back onto Daryl's shoulder and snuggled with him...it was so sweet (wish I had a photo, but I wasn't expecting a photo opportunity during a blood draw).

One note about our time at Children's - everywhere we went, Esther got attention for her cute antics (Jessie went everywhere with her and tap dance for more than a few observers).  Carese was also the recipient of many oohs and awes as she is still so tiny.  Most little babies at Children's are shrouded in their car seats, leaving one to only wonder as to why they needed to be at Children's.  I'm afraid Carese just shouted "healthy newborn" there.

After that we were free to head home, but not until after we stopped to have lunch at the famous "Dick's Drive-In".  Esther was asleep before we were even half way to there.

With full (heavy) stomachs, we headed home.  Our only stop was at a rest area north of Marysville.  We took care of diaper changes and feeding Carese in the shade (the car was quite hot as we were driving our Camaro on a super sunny day, and the Camaro has lots of windows and a black interior - the AC doesn't work anymore).  Of course Jessie came along and found that the cement picnic table was a wonderful place to tap dance!  Esther enjoyed some free cake from the free coffee stand there, as Daryl and I took turns making a stop at the bathroom.  It was such a wonderful break in our day - peaceful, shady and with a wonderfully cool breeze to enjoy!

Our next stop was home, where I went for an immediate nap and Esther enjoyed playing with her siblings.  A very tiring day, but it went even better than expected, that is for sure!

Lastly, Esther got her first majoy hair trim a  couple of weeks ago - all her hair is finally one length!  It was a major improvement as you can see:

Esther's home and doing well!

They were able to take care of her pyogenic granuloma in the office at Children's (Bellevue) today!   She didn't appreciate the procedure, but it went well, and didn't even take very long!

They will be testing what they removed to see if it is malignant, but they assured me that these are almost always benign.  The post-op instruction seem to be easy enough, but I had to sign a release that stated that I understood that there would be scaring and there is a possibility that they will recur - but that isn't really common.  We also have to watch for infection.

Thanks so much for your prayers!  I really didn't think that they would take care of it there, but I was so relieved that they did as it bled so many times in the last few days that I lost count...it wasn't fun being on full alert all the time as you just never knew when she'd start bleeding profusely!

She needs to go to Children's for it!

And my Dr talked with the on call dermatologist at Children's and they moved the appointment up to Friday morning.  I forgot to ask if they would be doing the procedure that day, but I have a feeling it's just a look-see to set up a date for the procedure.  I'm thinking about calling today to find that out, and possibly trying to find out the time frame for final resolution!



Thanks for you prayers on this, as it moved up quickly yesterday afternoon - right about the time my Bible Study group was praying for that very thing!   God is so good!

I've got so get so much done today and I really didn't plan on having to head to Seattle this week, and it's a very early appointment so I'm going to head down tomorrow and have some fun with my sister, Lisa, and possibly with both my sisters - Beth and Lisa have been trying to have the three of us go out for lunch together this month, but it just wasn't happening, so if we can pull it off, we are going to get together for lunch on Thursday in Seattle  FUN!  Esther will enjoy  it too!

I'll update once I know anything on Friday.

Pyogenic Granuloma

I've never heard these words before!  But that is what Esther has on her face!  It has grown a lot since we took her in to see the Dr when it first start bleeding.  It now bleeds several times a day, but it stops much faster than that first time.

She needs to have it removed, and soon!  I now have an appointment at Children's Hospital with a pediatric dermatoligist there, but the first opening is for October 14.  This "thing" has about tripled in size in the last week and a half - and it's really ugly!  I really don't want to wait another 2 1/2 weeks, as it will be so much larger!  This is smack in the middle of her cheek, and I hate to see her have a large scar there!  Also, they can recur if they are not taken care of properly, and I'm sure the larger it gets, the harder it is to get rid of all of it!

Children's said that we could possible get a sooner appointment if my pediatrician will do a Dr to Dr consult as to the urgency of this, so there is hope!  There's no pediatric dermatologists up here, and the one in Everett won't take Esther's insurance!

Please pray that we can get a sooner appointment and get proper treatments for it!

Here are pic of the progression of this growth:

[caption id="attachment_359" align="aligncenter" width="397" caption="You can see the tiniest little speck here, back at the first of August - that's when I first noticed it."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="You can see it's a little bigger here - this was Sept 12 - just after the first bleeding incidence."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_361" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Here is what it looked like last Wednesday - not too much bigger, but it sticks out away from her face more."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_362" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="It's not only larger, but if it isn't underneath this waterproof covering, it stands out off her face about 3/8 of an inch!"][/caption]

Yesterday, it broke open and bled about 6 times, one time she had about half of the portion where it is attached to her normal skin broken open and it was bleeding very fast!  Her pediatrician tried to cauterize it but it only began to bleed faster.  Needless to say, I am anxious to get this removed!

6 Weeks of Family News - part 2

So,  last time we ended with photos of when Jeremy was home (by the way he was home for just 8 days, and left for California on March 7, and left for Iraq the week of March 20.  It took him several days to arrive there and we've gotten to talk with him on the phone 3 times now).

Here are some random photos of events during March:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Dayton Up Close and Personal"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Fun with the Riding Mower - no lawn to mow, but that doesn"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Esther"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Multiplication Tables - back to basics around here this spring to prep for annual testing!"][/caption]

Next the kids went to the Youth Fair - sponsored by 4H and happens every year at the North West Washington Fair Grounds. The cost is minimal and the fun is maximum! Your child selects a class to take, and spends all day Friday/Saturday learning - everything from cows (Jessica did beef cows this year), to gardening, to clowning, to chess and more! This year Reuben did chess, Rachel did knitting, and Rebekah did gardening/country crafts. Here's some photos that were the outcome of this:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Rebekah's birdhouse!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Chess Game - guess who's playing against Reuben?"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="It's Dayton - he learned all the moves (but the strategy is a little beyond him at just 5 years old)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Girls Can play Chess - I even played a few games and won!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="A Perspective on Chess"][/caption]

By the way - I didn't take any of the last 6 photos - it's the old "leave the camera out and you get lots of bonus photos" - I am so thankful for digital photography as it free the kids up to be creative with the camera and all I have to do is delete the bad ones and benefit from all the photos I didn't take the time to take!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Elizabeth - when she sleeps, she really is laid back!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Hmmm...I wonder where I saw this before!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Esther with Andrea, her physical therapist. Andrea got a new job working with inpatient at St Joes, so this was her last time with Andrea - we will miss her and she was so sweet with Esther and Esther just loved her and so did I! Thanks Andrea!!"][/caption]

When Esther first came to Andrea at the end of January, she couldn't even hold up her own head, and now Esther can roll from front to back, back to front, holds her head up while on her tummy, holds herself errect when you hold her and is almost sitting up by herself now! All that in just over 3 months - amazing for a cardiac baby, let alone for one with Downs!

That bring you up to the Middle of March - now I've got two events that need their own posts!

6 weeks of family news - part 1

I have been sooo busy! It all started back when Jeremy was coming home.  It took so much work to get things ready for him, prepare for the open house while he was here, get our family portraits, and get in as much family time as possible - and all that was back in the beginning of March!  And here we are in May already!

So here's some photos of thei highlights of all the happening around here during Jeremy's visit until now.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Jeremy Bowling"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Jeremy and Jessica and Bowling"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Daryl Bowling"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="The Men Bowling"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Jessica and Esther - Esther is wearing Jessica's old outfit - one Auntie Lisa gave her - you know you are getting old when... the kids hand-me-downs are nearly antiques!  LOL!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Family time!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Daddy and Esther Time - Great Smile eh?"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Boy and their Tunes"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Trying to Burn the Stump - hot dog roast and marshmellow roast too!"][/caption]

We spent around 5 days burning a "huge" hole in this enormous stump in our back yard - the hole we burned was around 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. As it turned out, it didn't even make a dent. The base of the stump was around 8 feet across with around 4 roots that were at least 2 feet thick coming off. After breaking off most of the roots (each of which took around 10 - 15 minutes with a HUGE dozer ) the stump and root bases were around 12 feet across when it finally gave up and was lifted out of the ground leaving a huge hole behind to say the least!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Jessica dis-assembling the old chicken run"][/caption]

This used to hold chickens - it was mobile and we had meat chickens in it - you would move it every day and the chickens would eat the grass and fertilize you yard! Great idea, worked well, but I am so done with butchering chickens - last time I ended the butchering day by sinking around 2 inches of the butchering knife into my arm and puncturing an artery - not good! Jessica is removing a gazillion staples so we can re-use the treated wood to make a new grape trellis - photos of that coming soon!

Well it's bedtime, so I'll just give a quick up-to-date report. Jeremy is in Iraq and doing well. They are in a camp that is really basic - all tents and not even a real bathroom. They are on a base that has never been attacked since the Marines came there, that sounded great to me! He's a little bored and we've sent him magazines and book.

Esther is sick - she was very healthy for a little over a month and gained weight like crazy! Last weekend she came down with a bad cold, we thought, but on Wednesday I decided she wasn't herself at all and took her in (after several very-little-sleep nights with her coughing) to see the doctor and she has an ear infection, and some "noise" in her chest. She was put on some beefed up antibiotics which gave her diarhea - it burned her backside already, but we are keeping her slathered with A and D ointment now. She's still really congested so I might have to bring her back in as the doctor said to call if she wasn't feeling better after the weekend (I think that's what she said).

Esther now weighs over 15 1/2 pounds, rolls from front to back, and back to front and is almost sitting lone now!

I hope to find some time to put up some more photos from March and April tomorrow, as well as some before, during, and after photos of our driveway and front yard.

The girls and I had done some really neat flower beds in front of the house, and I've got a little over half the new front yard seeded for grass and the first portion is starting to have a green haze to it. We are planning out vegetable gardens right now and hope to start planting as soon as the rain stops (first rain in weeks - it's been like summer around here for a while and we've gotten spoiled, but we need this rain too as it will help make that grass grow!).

I've got to go to bed - long day/week and I'm bushed - just have one more sleeping body to move upstairs and then I can rest!