Ear Tubes for Jaxy Boy

Sadie is our only child that hasn't had ear infections and ear tubes. It all started with Cayden who had chronic ear infections from the time he was only 2 months old. When he was 6 months old, he finally had tubes. When the twins were born, we knew what to look for and sure enough they both started having ear infections from the very beginning. McKell was so little when she got her tubes at age 2 months and Ashlee only 5 months when she got her first set of tubes. She has since had another set put in and may have to have another. Sadie came along and we just assumed she would need tubes, but nope. She was just fine.

When Jaxson was born, we again watched for signs. He had a few really bad ear infections that our pediatrician misdiagnosed as "swimmer's ear" when in reality, he had ruptured his eardrum. This happened twice. After realizing that he wasn't talking much, we took him to our great ENT, Dr Kelley. He agreed that he needed tubes and a hearing test showed that he had hearing loss in both ears, but didn't think that was permanent. So a few months ago, we decided to get tubes. But Jaxson had other plans. He had developed a really bad cough that morning and they refused to do surgery if he had a cough. Instead, we spent the morning in the ER getting a breathing treatment for croup.

Following that, he didn't have as many infections, so we thought it was okay. But upon a follow up with the ENT, we realized that he still had fluid behind his ears and couldn't hear. We scheduled tubes again, and this time we did it!

Jaxson did great going with the dr. And his recovery was perfect and he was back to his normal silly adorable self in no time.

Since then, his vocabulary has exploded. He is talking so much and saying so many words. For weeks after his surgery, the other kids would say, "Thanks Mom and Dad for getting Jaxson his tubes. Now we can talk to him!" We couldn't agree more!
Hanging out at Primary Children's in Riverton just waiting for his turn.

He was happy and had fun playing while he waited for his turn.
It was hard for me when they came to take my baby boy away. But he loved getting to ride in the car to the operating room and seemed very happy. The surgery went great and we are thankful

Looking to the future and the past

It has been WAY too long since I blogged. I had great intentions of getting all caught up and moving forward from there. Yeah, that didn't happen. After realizing I was about a year behind, I decided to scrap that plan. So my new plan is to start blogging from today while also trying to catch up on the past. Wish me luck!

Two Peas in a Pod

These two are the best of friends. Where you find one of them, you usually will find the other. It makes my heart so happy that they are so close and love each other so much! When we decided to have Sadie, we knew we would be having another baby after her so she wouldn't be the "lone caboose". It is the best decision ever! I have no doubt that God sent these two angels to our family at the exact right time. Their little personalities are so different but they fit like a perfect jigsaw puzzle. Sadie is full of life, energy, opinions, and is a very strong little person. Jaxson has always been sweet, laid back, easy going, and pretty much just goes with the flow. They make a perfect pair!

Happy 9th Birthday Ashlee & McKell!!

My beautiful girls turned 9 years old today! NINE!? Where in the world did 9 whole years go? It honestly just seems like yesterday that I was in a hospital room in Boise, Idaho giving birth to these amazing precious girls. Ashlee coming first with just a few pushes and McKell having to be literally pulled into the world with one arm behind her back and born breech. Their births gave a very clear forecast of their personalities to this day! They are both growing into such beautiful young ladies. I love that they look different, act different, have different interests, and totally different and unique personalities! I love that they are the best of friends and have a special unbreakable bond between them. Happy 9th birthday, my beautiful girls!
Such silly girls! They keep each other laughing all the time!
For their 9th birthday party, Ash and McKell decided to have a birthday luau.
I LOVE this photo! Little girls being little girls...giggling and whispering to each other.
The Bounce house was a big hit!
We had yummy Hawaiian pizza, Hawaiian punch, and Hawaiian fruit



This photo of Sadie makes me laugh. She spent hours in that bounce house and loved every minute!

So happy that Korbin could come join us. He and Sadie had a blast!






Two of a kind! These two, often referred to as the "village idiots" are best buddies and never stop laughing, goofing off, and usually causing trouble! We love Brett!







I made the mistake of letting McKell watch "Cake Boss" a few months ago and she has been begging since then for a "Cake Boss Birthday Cake". Since we weren't going to fly to New Jersey and I wasn't going to spend a mint on a cake, I decided to try it myself. This is my first attempt ever of working with fondant, layers, etc. I was pretty happy with the outcome.

My little Sadie Jayne

Sadie Jayne
My sweet little Sadie Jayne is growing up before my very eyes. My baby girl is set on being a "big girl" no matter how hard I try to keep her little. She is all about being a princess and is a girl with a mind of her own. Sadie is the ray of sunshine in our family!
We have reached a "fun" stage with Sadie where she will ONLY wear dresses and skirts and it is ALL about the twirl. If it isn't a "twirly dress" it is definitely a hard sell. I would probably be more frustrated if it weren't for the fact that I was the exact same way when I was little. I remember spending hours "twirling" to make sure my dresses were sufficiently twirly. So now I am getting my "come up-ins" with my own little twirly dress princess!

Poor little princess is all tuckered out after a long day at church!

Update

So, it has been a while since I gave an update on my back situation and quite a bit has changed/happened.

Things with my lower back have been put on the back burner. There are still major issues there, but they aren't the main focus any more. The good news is that the latest MRI shows that the discs in my lower back are no longer herniated. The bad news is that they aren't herniating because they have degenerated so much due to "degenerative disc disease". So we will just have to see how things go. I still have a lot of lower back pain, but it isn't as bad as before.

Unfortunately, the reason we aren't focusing on my lower back is because we are having to focus on my neck. Back in July, when I had my car accident, the MRI showed a bulging disc in my C5-C6. The disc was actually herniating to the right and inward and indenting the thecal sack. (The sack around the spinal chord that holds the spinal fluid in.)

I met with a neurosurgeon and we discussed different options including a disc replacement surgery. My neurosurgeon, is the "go to" guy for this specific surgery. It is a relatively new surgery, but he has done this surgery numerous times. The surgery basically goes in and takes out the damaged disc and then a stainless steel disc is attached with screws. The reason it is the best option is because the recovery time is a little less than a fusion but mostly because it allows you to still have mobility in your neck and also doesn't put added pressure on the surrounding discs like a fusion does.


About 3 weeks ago, the situation took a severe turn for the worse when I was rear-ended. The guy behind me was texting and I was stopped at a light on Bangerter and he hit into me. I noticed an immediate increase in pain, especially in my neck. MRI's confirmed that the disc in my neck that was bad before, was now a lot worse. The disc is now actually in contact and flattening the right side of my spinal chord. It is also in direct contact and impinging the main nerve coming out of my spine . My doctor described the pain pretty accurately as it feeling like having an open root canal in my neck. It has been very painful and because it is nerve pain, it is often not responsive to pain meds. The biggest concern is that this nerve is being compressed and "impinged" by that disc and over the past few weeks I have had my whole right arm and hand and fingers etc. gradually become more and more numb to the point that I am in right now where it feels like my arm and hand is always asleep and gets tingly, etc. and doesn't ever go completely away. The reason this is bad, is because that is the sign of the nerve being damage. And as you probably know, nerve damage is not repairable so once it is damaged, it is gone which if it keeps being damaged, will end up in eventual paralysis in my right arm and hand.

We have tried some other options like physical therapy and traction but they haven't helped much. I went to have a steroid/pain relief injection this past week but there were complications due to the bad inflammation and they weren't able to even complete the procedure.

I have an appt with my neurosurgeon on the 11th and was supposed to have a surgery date of the 12th. But that all changed this past week when my neurosurgeon broke his finger and had to have surgery on his hand. He has postponed doing any surgeries for an undetermined amount of time, but they are hoping that he will be okay by the 26th. The problem with that for us is that at the rate that I am losing feeling, muscle strength, etc. aka nerve damage, we don't think we can wait until the 26th and risk permanent severe nerve damage and paralysis.

So we are incredibly frustrated and nervous about all of this. Because of the holiday weekend, we haven't been able to discuss this with any other doctors or get any other recommendations of what we should do. What we have been told by all of the doctors is that the best thing that I can do is limit my activity level, no lifting, bending, etc. which of course is impossible with 5 kids, including 2 little ones.

So please keep us in your prayers as we work towards figuring out what we are going to do. This has been a very big struggle for our family and we are trying our best.

Love,
Rob and Marci