We're free!!!

We are on our way home!!! Not much change other than that since last post.

We will be doing IV Meds twice a day. They run for 2 hours each day.

Home health will come do dressing changes on the line and do blood draws to monitor the amount of medicine in her blood stream as well as keeping an eye on her kidney (she only has 1).

We are to clean the ear 3 times a day and do antibiotic drops for 7 days. We obviously have to treat the infection but the moisture this forces us to put inside is not good for healing from an implant perspective. We also have to push on the area behind her ear several times a day to try and prevent blood from collecting there again. We have to watch that for any change in size.

She will also be taking an additional antibiotic by mouth that is often given to those with a foreign body inside their body. Her foreign body being her implant.

She has been taking a probiotic since they began the Meds and will continue to for her digestive system.

The orders were written for 4 weeks of IV treatment. It may be longer but that is the current plan.

The infectious disease Dr said no school until picc is out. We have already begun working with the school on this and hopefully tomorrow will have a plan in place.

What a week! What a month! However, despite the fact we have a long way to go, she is better and for that we are very thankful!!! It will be wonderful for all 6 Halls to be under one roof tonight! AND in a REAL bed!!!

As long as there are no changes with her we see both docs next Thursday.

A few pics from the last couple of days and of our home for the last week.

Well Sunday was not as good as Saturday. We survived without Daddy but we sure missed him.

Late that afternoon they made the decision to do surgery. So bright and early this morning we took a trip down to the OR. We have realized she really has had a lot of surgeries when the nurse says "I looked over her chart last night and wow, she is a brave girl" and we walk in surgery waiting and the reception says, "the Hall's are back". Uh yeah...

He was able to take the packing from the ear and clean out that area and place a drying agent in there. He did not have to open behind the ear as planned. He discovered that was a hematoma caused by the infection so he was able to push this out through the canal. We were very thankful he did not have to open that area. The issue though is that this cavity in there could continue to fill with blood in which case something else would have to be done. He is really hoping he does not have to take another route with that as are we. He bandaged that ear and has it so that pressure is applied to that area to try and prevent it from coming back. He will take that off tomorrow morning. Depending on what he sees then and us getting results from the initial cultures we MAY get to go home tomorrow. We of course will do the IV Meds at home and he will need to monitor that area really closely so many trips I am sure. We also know more surgery will be coming soon to correct some issues inside that ear caused by the treatment for the infection which are not favorable for healing from the implant and the prevention of the skin tumors. So no end in site but going home would be progress!

As always thank you for your prayers and please continue!

The first pic is from last nt when A got back. I do not think I have ever seen her so happy to see him! Life came back into her face! I jokingly said she had been healed! Then the last is from today with her bandage. Seriously if I had a dollar for every one of those red wraps she has ever worn!

Reunited!!!!

No real change with Sallie today.  She has felt better today.  We all slept much better night which  a ton!  Last nt she was showing some signs of dehydration but she has drank much more today and that is better.

Mr.Larry who is a man in our church who provides Sallie on a consistent basis with chocolate drove over to bring her MORE chocolate!  Think he loves Sallie???

The cousins sent her a gift bag filled with an 11x14 coloring book, twist up crayons, a sock monkey, and a book she can design.  It had kept her busy today!  Thank yall!

We really are so blessed by the prayers, gifts for Sallie,visits, texts, messages, calls, food that has been brought to us, toiletries, and other goodies for us.  Our church family has been amazing at taking care of the girls in our absence.  We are beyond blessed to serve with them!

The highlight of our day was the sisters being reunited!  We all were very excited to see each other!  A sweet couple in our church brought them to see us!

Sallie had a gift card for $10 from the hospital for the Build
a Bear here in the hospital.  Because of the MRSA she cant leave the room so  and Millie went and picked her out an outfit.  How sweet and selfless for them to do that and not get anything for themselves.

We really had a great day minus them leaving...  A took them home and he will preach tomorrow.  Not sure at this point when he will be back.  I am thankful that we are both here for each other most of the time.  One look around us and we realize Sallie is in the minority when it comes to being from a 2 parent household.  The nurses have all been amazed at the things Aaron does as a Daddy.  Not that I have fallen out of love but watching him take care  Sallie when she is sick melts my heart!

Once again, thank you for the prayers and keep em comin!
y

In a matter of seconds...

Everything can change and change quickly! Whew... I think our lives became a whirlwind immediately after my last post.

A and I decided the knot behind her ear was worse. I called Dr. Bauer and he said meet him at the hospital. He had told us the day before he would do surgery if we had to come in. However after digesting the situation and consulting with infectious disease decided he really did not need to open that as bad as infection was. We were admitted on Tues afternoon. They began giving her as strong of antibiotics as possible as often as possible. She had a reaction to vancomycin but we have slowed down the rate that is being given and she takes Benadryl prior to medicating and this has helped. It has been a rough few days. Cultures did confirm yesterday it is MRSA. This morning they placed a picc line. We do not know at this point when we will go home but we will do IV Meds at home for a while. Picc line procedure went great. Praise God! For now they want to give more Meds and continue to watch the site. Hopefully soon they we be able to make a decision on whether to open that area to drain/clean out. Dr. Bauer does not want to take the risk of spreading the infection origins something where he just did the surgery. But, if that site does not improve it may be a must. Big concern that the infection not spread up her head to the area where implant is. They have made it clear that the implant will have to come out if that happens. We are still waiting for cultures to show what they are resistant to. They choose vanc in hopes that it will kill anything but we may need to switch Meds once we get those results. I think it is safe to say that even if we are not seeing a lot of improvement it is not getting worse either. So we wait and we wait some more!

This has been scary and beyond tiring. Have we questioned doing this implant since this came up. I admit there was a time yesterday that I did. Despite the past praises for God's timing in this I let myself go there. I asked A his thoughts last might and he said "Cameron if we lose that implant and can never implant again we know we did what we were supposed to do". There are times when I wish my very direct husband would sugar coat things but I needed to hear that as direct and bring me back to what I already knew.

We appreciate all the many prayers and please continue! Also pray for our other girls who we miss terribly and have had to adjust to us not being there. They do this well and they are often forgotten in this picture.

Recovery Detour

We have ridden a roller coaster of ups and downs since the day our Sallie came into this world! The past few weeks have been no different. I am tired! Partly from the roller coaster ride, partly from taking care of someone constantly for weeks, and partly from this cold I have that keeps me up at night. I am finished whining! Just keeping it real!

We saw Dr. Bauer yesterday. It turns out that what had come out of her ear was packing. No, packing should not be coming out. We felt like there was some infection in that ear. Turns out there is a lot of infection in there. In fact, so much that it pushed that packing out of the ear. He does not get in a twit easily and he was in a twit. There is a place behind her ear which does not look good at all. Basically the infection is so bad that there is a discolored knot there. He feels quite sure the infection is MRSA. He cultured but went ahead and treated with bactrum which normally will fight staph. She historically has had staph in her ears and it is always very difficult to get rid of. What now? We watch the are closely and if the knot gets any larger we are to call him and he said he would need to take her in to surgery to drain the infection. If not we are to see him next week and of there is not a lot of improvement she will need to be admitted for IV Meds. He also told us to cancel our activation for next week. We have to get this under control first.

Are we upset? Yes! Are we disappointed? Yes! Are we concerned? Yes! BUT the God we were praising in the good has not changed and He still knows all the details! That is our hope!

Please continue to pray!

Now this is a lot of antibiotics!

Post-op, Praises, and Prayers

Last Thursday we saw Dr. Bauer for Sallie's post-op. It is really wait and see now. He wanted to take her into the procedure rm to get her more accustomed to that and not so nervous in hopes that we can move toward cleaning the inside of the ears more often in clinic. He was not surprised that she was still sick and said it was probably a combination of issues which all would take time. He said the sponges he had placed in her ear the day of surgery could be creating some pressure and contributing to the sickness. He removed those as planned. He also blew some powder in there to aid with healing.

He said to us, "if I did not make it really clear on the day of surgery I want you to know that it was really good that we were in that ear when we were because we were about to have major issues from the growths". Yes we already knew this. Yes we had acknowledged it as a blessing but I was glad he brought it back to our attention. I think we had been so busy taking care of her that we had failed to completely acknowledge how big this was. Our initial goal was to do this surgery in March. I never liked the idea of January. It is right after the holidays, there is always so much sickness, etc. When we asked for insurance approval we asked for January-March because there are many issues to work through as far as timing so we asked for a larger window. The approval came back for only Jan. and Feb. When we talked to Dr. B he could only do 2 days during that time. A had already planned to be in Africa during 2 wks of Feb so Jan 7th ended up being the only date. I really was not happy with this date BUT we accepted it as when it needed to be. We had no idea! What would have happened had it worked for us to wait? I am not sure. However, we give our God the credit for the timing! I asked how he felt about them coming back and he said he had done A LOT to keep this from happening and that he was able to be very aggressive since he was destroying what hearing she had and implanting anyway. So, he was very hopeful.

I am happy to report no V word since! She was able to go to church yesterday morning which wiped her out so she and I stayed in last night. I prepared her for going to school this morning which she accepted well!

This morning as I was helping her get dressed for school I noticed that something was on the outside of her that came from inside... This may be totally gross for some of you but you gotta do what you gotta do. We examined it closely and it appears fibrous. We can also see that there is more of whatever it is. We really have no idea! We called Dr. B's nurse. He was in surgery which we knew but she sent him a txt and he wants us to bring her in tomorrow. Please pray this is nothing major... God knows and He knows every detail! The same God who knew the exact time she needed surgery knows every detail of what is going on right now and we rest in that.

She was able to go to school today until lunch. She is tired! She is resting now but brought home lots of makeup work so we have to get busy!

This pic was from last wk when we went to the Dr. We were so excited to be out of the house!

I hope the words sick and/or vomit are not in my next post! Sick of sick and really sick of vomit!

Here's the rundown:

Sallie was able to wash her hair! If you know me, you know that made me happy!

Monday was crazy! Sallie had a bad day of vomiting, Lizzie had the stomach virus so once again vomiting, and Ell had something similar to the flu! Uh yeah!

Tuesday Sallie had a great day! She felt the best she had since surgery and was able to wear her first cochlear most of the day. In the pics below there is one with a cute stuffed pig. One of her sweet teachers from last yr sent it to her. It is a Scentsy buddy so it has a fragrance pack inside. So cute, smells good, and she loves it! She has gotten some thoughtful things to help with recovery including LOTS of candy, movies, and other goodies.

Wed was another bad day for Sallie with you guessed it vomiting! Dr. Bauer told is this recovery would be worse and he was right. We really did not expect the sickness to last this long though. It is so hard to see her so sick.

We are now headed for her follow up. Feels good to leave the house for the first time in 8 days! No V word this morning but she still will not eat and is dealing with nausea.

All the other girls are back in school today! Ready to put an end to this week! I am really thankful that neither A or myself have been sick!

Word of the Week

The word of the week is VOMIT! What a gross word! Really, it just sounds gross!

Wednesday was rough. Sallie was so sick... The vomiting was non-stop. She woke up throwing up and then we could never get Meds to stay in her so it was not good. We made it home that afternoon and that night she began to improve and we were able to keep her Meds down.

Yesterday was a much better day for her with no vomiting! She dealt with pain off and on but considering what she had done I think it was a good day! Glad she was not vomiting because Millie was... Wed Nt she began complaining with headache followed by fever, vomiting, and upset tummy. She threw up lots. This morning she still has fever and tummy ache but no vomiting. We are praying no one else gets this!

Sallie seems irritable today but we don't blame her! We will take irritable! She gets to take a bath today which makes me happy! We may attempt to back of the prescription pain Meds and anti nausea today. It may be a while before she is completely off them and that is ok but in the next day or so we will try to reduce them.

Nanna and Grandy left this morning so we are solo now. Well I guess we are a duo. It was great to be able to focus on Sallie while we were in FW and not worry about the other girls. It was also nice to have extra hands and super nice to have someone to cook meals and do clean up. Back to reality...

Here's to hoping our word of the week does not become our word of the weekend!

HE Knows!

Yesterday was a long day... We got to the hospital before 5:30. Sallie had a low grade fever and anesthesia wanted her to have a breathing treatment. She had a good bit of congestion going in. I was reminded yesterday about truly believing the words that I say. I say God is in control and I trust Him but I was reminded that is easier when things are going the way we think they should. I held it together but I admit I was concerned. I know that is normal but I was tested yesterday for sure. I had not been that concerned about her being put to sleep in a long time. After all the drs and nurses walked out A and I talked over our concerns. I finally just said, "the Lord knows". That's what it all comes down to. He knows! Each moment may surprise us but not Him and it is in His hands anyway. That little hiccup prepared me for what was to come. Dr. Bauer came to talk to us and as many surgeries as he has done on Sallie I have never seen him as exhausted. His first word was wow. When he got into that ear she had a cholesteatoma ( the skin tumors) growing in her eustacia tube and one in the mastoid area behind the ear. So a huge praise that he went into that ear and caught that before it got out of control. He got all that out and tried to do everything possible to prevent it from growing back. Then he began the work to build the area for the implant and then finally implanting the electrodes and the magnet. He told us we would need to discuss a plan for keeping those ears as clean as possible which will mean more visits to him. He cleaned the other ear and said it was not healed as well as he had hoped mostly because of all the debris that collects in that ear. What now? Come up with a plan for cleaning out the ears more often in his office, see how both ears heal and what possibly will need to be done, we activate hopefully on Jan 31st if swelling is not too bad. The greatest concern and prayer need we have at this time is the cholesteatoma NOT coming back in either ear. Yesterday when he told us there were 2 in that ear panic took over again. That ear is historically bad for them but it was just a reminder of the riskiness of implanting. If they grow back with the implants in #1 it could be a long time before we caught it and #2 we would have a huge issue with removing it. Dr Bauer left out and A listened to my list of fears (bless his heart he has done this a million times) and at the end of my rant I said "we can't change it and He knows" to which A replied, "yep". We plead with you to join us in praying the skin growths are gone forever! He also told us with all he did to expect recovery to be worse. So far, he is right but we have Meds and are keeping them in her and for the most part they are working now. Vomiting was an issue last night and nausea continues to be an issue but she was able to drink some Gatorade and eat some crackers this afternoon. We left the hospital this morning and are in a hotel tonight and hopefully she will be up to going home tomorrow. Please also pray for her recovery so that she does not miss too much school. A few pics from the past couple of days:

Christmas, Birthday, Christmas, and More Christmas

This year our church had a Christmas Cantata and they did a really good job.  They did a performance on Sat nt and then during morning worship on Sunday.  This was taken after the Sat nt performance. 

Each year the 1st grade presents a Christmas Musical.  It was precious and they had as many songs about Jesus as they did Rudolph!  It was really sweet! 

 

Lizzie and her friendWith her teacherThe girls dance class danced at the Nursing Home again.  They did a GREAT job!Posing with their Seymour Buddies.  They take dance in another town and there are girls from several different towns.

When they finished dancing their teacher asked them to hug the residents.  I was SO proud of Lizzie and Millie.  They looked at me for just a second like, “do we have to?”  I nodded yes and they began hugging and hugged every resident in the room. 

Next up was class Christmas Parties.  Notice the girls have on the same outfits over and over!  These were their Christmas outfits and they wore them A LOT in 2 weeks!

We celebrated A’s Birthday with a PINK cake!  He loved it!Our original plan was to travel to AL the day after Christmas.  However, our plans changed once the weather forecasts predicted snow for us on Christmas Eve/Day so we headed out on Christmas Eve to avoid being stuck and not able to travel.  We avoided the snow but AL was full of tornadoes on Christmas Day.  There was one after another.

The kids found their safe place!Sallie was NOT concerned!  I love this pic of her!Ell with our oldest nephewLove this of Ell and Sallie!

We took a few pics.  Not nearly enough!  I just never take enough pics when we are there anymore.  I have to do better!  My family was supposed to do family pics but the weather did not cooperate so we are going to do that our next trip home. 

My sisters and I.  This one is not great quality but I do like it!SMILE Mama!Mama smiling but the rest of us are tickled about something!  There really is no telling what!  Our family!  By this time I was on fire from the fire behind us!I do not have one pic with my Daddy in it and this is the ONLY pic I have from our time with A’s family!  Once again, I have to do better! 

A and Adam canoeing down the river!  We all feared for their lives.  They made it down and called us to come get them, thankfully!On our way home we stopped by the Duck Commander warehouse!!!  WE LOVE DUCK DYNASTY!!!  It is the one show we all LOVE!  It is wholesome and funny and we just love it!  The warehouse is not far off the interstate at all.  It was freezing and Millie does not have enough meat on her bones SO she was not happy because she was COLD!There were lots of other people there doing the same thing as us and one family had a dog SO with Mill being cold and Sallie not liking the dog they got back in the van.  THE RV!Lizzie looking into the store inside the warehouseWe are definitely stopping again during the week when they are open!  It was neat and fun but maybe next time we can see somebody!  All the partying left the Hall’s TIRED!!! 

We had a WONDERFUL break!  It went by really fast as usual but it was good and now we are getting back to our routine.