9 weeks tomorrow & GREAT Dr. visit!!

So these aren't the best pictures because I am very tired, but I just couldn't wait to get these up -- I wanted to share my new face with the whole world!! I went to the Infectious Disease doctor today and he RELEASED me - no more antibiotics (after 6 weeks of being on them). When Dave packed my face last night, he couldn't get the packing to stay in so I wondered if we were nearing the end. The doctor and nurse confirmed that we were FINISHED packing! YEAH!!!! I still have to wear a band aid, but NO MORE WHITE PATCHES!!! I took the top picture with no bandage- just so everyone could see what the finished product might look like! We went to dinner to celebrate (don't tell Dave but it was just a good excuse not to cook! :o) )!! WHOO-HOO!!!! I told Dave that I think that I am even happier with the results since I had to go through all this...it has been a LONG haul, but I am glad I did it and I think it will be worth it! :o)

Straight hair...

The "Curly Girlies" talked me into straightening their hair -- Emee had been waiting for me to get better (no IV) so I could do her hair -- I had never done it. Get a good look at Addi's beautiful LONG hair because she wants to get it cut off again. I have an appointment for her next Wednesday. She will be donating to Locks of Love again...I'm so proud of her even though I will miss it!! At least it will grow back...sigh... Oh, I forgot to add that one of the teacher's at Emee's schoool thought that there was a new girl in her class because she didn't recognize Emee with straight hair!!

Dr. visit

Hello from Houston!
We got here OK with no major problems except that we were VERY tired. I guess Dave & I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. After the Dr. and pharmacy, we came back to Grandma & Grandad's house and CRASHED (even though the girlies were DYING to go swimming!). I really think that I could have slept until tomorrow morning, but I made myself get up & rejoin the world this afternoon. I went to see Dr. Brissett at noon and got good news. He is very pleased with the healing process -- we've gone from packing about 1.5 inches to 1/8 of an inch. I guess that is a LOT of healing! :o) However, I am destined to wear the white patch for a while (probably a good while) longer. He wants to continue packing it 2-3 times a day (I guess the more we change it, the faster it heals??), but Dave will do that now since it is not anywhere near as deep. He said that we will know when it is time to stop when the packing just lays even with my skin. I asked him about plastic surgery to fix where this scar will be - what he thought the probability would be and he said 100% (but then he said we would just wait & see). He also said that I can start working out again. Cindy is very happy - I think I am, I just don't know about getting up so early again!! :o) He said he would see me in about 3 weeks, but since I have an appointment to see Dr. Byrne in Baltimore in July, he said I could just follow up with him. Of course he said that if I needed him for anything that he was just a phone call away (& would gladly do the repair work if needed). He is a very nice man. The girls are still in the pool (9:30) with Dave - that's another thing - I can't get in the pool - glad the girlies can all swim and I can just watch them from the side! They did get out for a little while to eat, but they will sleep GOOD tonight! We will enjoy the rest of the weekend with family and graduation activities! TTFN!! :o)

Once again...

Once again, I am typing this when I should be doing something else...like packing...clothes, not my face!! We have to be at the airport in the morning at 6:00 so we have to leave here at 5:40. I don't know if I will even go to bed tonight since I have not packed one thing yet and we have Preschool Graduation at 7:00 (Kendie has to be there at 6:30) and then Addi's Dance Recital at 8:30 (she has to be there at 8:00). We will probably get home around 10 and then get Addi to bed. Actually, she will probably help me pack since she is getting old enough to do that and won't have to go to school tomorrow! WOW, I just thought of that -- I may get to sleep a little after all! I got a babysitter to bring Emee & Kendie home from the little graduation so they can get to bed. (OK, I just had to "plunge" the potty - it was about to overflow -- I DON'T have time for this today!!!) Anyway, my appointment is tomorrow in Houston at 12:00. The HHC nurse and I think that it can't be anything BUT good news -- say a little prayer for me, please! I'll try to update tomorrow after I see the Dr. :o)

7 Weeks

So here is a before and after (now) picture. I am 7 weeks out and would LOVE to post a picture without that beautiful white bandage, but at least I got my hair done. Maybe I will get more movement when all of the swelling/packing/problems are gone but I think you can see that some improvement was made. I'm wondering about the weight change and if Dr. Byrne will want to "tweek" that a bit, but that is the least of my problems right now! Overall, I am pleased with the difference in my smile - especially in my resting mouth. Again, these aren't the best pictures, but I thought this blog was getting a bit boring with just updates all the time. Soon I will add some pictures of the girlies. We have been super busy (yesterday we had 3 basketball games and a piano recital) and this week we have a ballet recital (& dress rehearsal) and preschool graduation. The recital & graduation are both Thursday night but this year one is at 7 and the other at 8:30 so we can make both! Then we have to be at the airport at 6:00 Friday morning to get the 1st flight out to Houston for my appointment at 12. I hope I get good news!! The HHC nurses say it is closing up more & more each day and have contacted the office in Houston - I only get it packed once a day now!

PICC-less!!!

YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I am PICC-less!! It already feels so good! Nothing else has really changed -- I will still take oral antibiotics and HHC will pack my face twice a day until I go back to Houston on the 23rd. He said that my white blood count had gone back up so that was good. I feel good and am having a wonderful visit with my MIL & SIL. The cousins are having a BLAST -- the weather has been really good so they have really been enjoying the backyard! Need to go - just wanted to share that I was PICC-less!! :o)

Thursday

I went back to the Infectious Disease doctor yesterday. He still is convinced that I have/had an infection while the other Dr's think it was a fluid build-up. I guess that is neither here nor there except that I don't want to be on massive amounts of antibiotics if I don't need them. They do blood tests every week to monitor my kidneys and all my levels so you know it has to be pretty tough stuff. The ID doc wanted me to keep doing IV's so we were going to do 1 more week, but then as we were about to leave, the infusion nurse said that plans had changed and that my white blood count was down and so I was going to start oral antibiotics instead of the IV. That would get a big "whoo hoo" from me EXCEPT they wanted to leave the PICC in! I guess I can endure another week! Home Health Care is coming twice a day and they have all been super nice. Apparently, I am the current "big challenge" as they have never had to pack something so deep in such a small "tunnel" before. Overall, I feel a LOT better and more like my old self -- just tired a lot. I'm sure I will feel even better if I could ever get off all the medicine! I am pleased with surgery & the whole appearance of my face - minus the white gauze, of course!! I need to be cleaning (really de-cluttering as my house is pretty clean) as my MIL and SIL (&her 2 kiddos) are coming this weekend and we are SO SOOOOO excited!! Off to work! :o)

Tuesday

I am finally back home after a very exhausting day yesterday. We had to wait for the Dr. for well over an hour yesterday as he was called to the hospital to close someone up. I can't really complain about that, though, since he has been so great to see me and work me in (he wasn't even seeing other patients last Thursday when we initially saw him!). He was most concerned that we were not packing it deep enough or "tight" enough. I was a little discouraged about that -- I don't think it will necessarily get worse but it will NEVER heal if we can't get that packing in good. I am waiting on Home Health Care now as they went ahead & set that up. Hopefully they will get in & get it done. Dave feels like he is a failure & can't take good care of his wife since he can't seem to get it in good enough, but I keep telling him he is doing a great job, he just doesn't have the right tools (or MD after his name!). After that we went to lunch and then barely had time to get to the airport. When I checked in, I noticed that my 1st flight was on time, but that my flight out of Dallas was already showing an hour delay -- I was supposed to leave at 5:15 and it showed 6:15 (I got there at 4:30). When I got to Dallas, it still said 6:15, but then that changed to 8:00!!! 8:00?? Apparently there was mechanical trouble AGAIN -- don' get me wrong, I want them to fix that BEFORE I get on the plane, but we have been travelling a LOT the last couple weeks and almost EVERY trip had been delayed or cancelled for mechanical problems. HHHHMMMMM...Anyway, I finally got to my house about 10 and then we had to do 2 bags of IV and re-pack my wound! It was midnight when I was finally able to go to bed...I'm tired today! The HHC nurse just came and she couldn't really get the packing in as deep or even easily find the "tunnel" either so Dave needs not to feel too bad. Oh, and did I mention that Kendie is home sick?? She threw up several times this morning and said her throat hurt too so Mom is taking her in at 3 to make sure she doesn't have strep. I don't need to go to the hospital to get an infection when I can get one at home! (My friend, Vicki's, son was hospitalized this weekend and it killed me that I couldn't go up there and be with her, but I didn't want to risk getting an infection in my "open wound") Kendie has kept down some crackers now and is asking for fruit snacks, but we are still going to get her checked! I still have the PICC line and am doing the IV's until they tell me I can stop. I go to the ID doctor in the morning so I am HOPING that they will take this out!!! That is all for now!

Home Again, Home Again...for a day or so!

We are back home -- we had a couple of delays, but thankfully they were holding the plane for us in Dallas. We got here in time to see the 2nd half of Addi's basketball game and then rush home to do an IV. (I have to say that is getting a bit old! I KNOW Dave has to think that -- especially since the last 2 mornings we have had to do them at 4 and 5!!) I have an appointment in Houston on Monday morning so I will fly out again Sunday afternoon. The Dr. is leaving for Russia on Friday and he knows (HE remembered me mentioning Thursday) that I have Kendie's Mother's Day Tea on Wednesday and did NOT want to miss it. Dave DID learn how to pack it and said it wasn't too gross or anything, but we had a friend, who is a home health care nurse, come over tonight to "supervise" -- she did it because Dave just wasn't as steady as he wanted. However, she used 2 hands and Dave was trying to do it like Dr. Brissett taught him with only one. Kristen is going to come back in the morning and I think Dave wants to try again & do it her way & see how he does. I told her we would just pay her -- it would be worth it if we can just get this fixed once & for all!! We could have stayed in Houston, but for once in my life, I packed not one slightly extra (OK, ONE pair of undies) thing but mainly we didn't have extra IV antibiotics! The culture that they took here last Monday came back today & guess what? NO GROWTH -- who knows when they will take me off this thing!! Gotta get to bed!

Dr. Brissett

We flew out at 7:00 this morning (after we did my IV at 4:00!) and when we arrived in Dallas to change planes, guess what? They had cancelled our flight to Houston! Can you believe that? They put us on standby for the next flight and we did not make that one, but we got on the next one. We were OK since we didn't have a Dr.'s appointment until this afternoon, but it still made us nervous. We had brunch at Le Peep (YUM!) and then we walked through some shops killing time. We got to Smith Towers and looked on the directory -- this was the SAME building that we went to 12.5 years ago for my acoustic neuroma (it still smelled the same). Not only that it was the EXACT SAME OFFICE -- kind of weird -- I guess we have come full circle! Anyway, Dr. Brissett was really nice -- he wasn't even seeing any other patients! He thinks that it is not even infected (he did take a culture), just a fluid collection. He opened the incision up and drained and packed it. It looks REALLY gross -- like makes me sick to think about it -- but it is covered with gauze. We go back in the morning to have him look at it again and to teach Dave how to pack it. If I were him, I wouldn't want to do it -- it is awful -- we will see how it goes...Dave & the doc said it looks better already! Looks like we are on the right track! More tomorrow...