just another day

A couple of weeks ago I went to the dermatologist with some concerns for a couple of moles. My dr. removed the two that were bothering me in addition to one she did not like the looks of. Go figure, that was the one that came back looking abnormal (Dysplastic). So today I had another appointment to go back and have more of the surrounding skin removed. I ended up with 14 stitches and directions to take it easy. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do :)

TBT

A little throw-back-Thursday on the ol' blog :)


Untitled from Holli Finke on Vimeo.

sleep study results

The results are in...

Kenley has mild-moderate obstructive sleep apnea.  We are thankful that she is not having complete blockage where she stops breathing, but she has enough blockage that is causing a significant amount of brain arousal. This seems to be happening all night long, so we know she is not getting a good quality of sleep.  Common treatment for children is a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. 

So, plan of action, back to ENT to get surgery scheduled (insert exaggerated sigh).

We know for sure this will help her quality of sleep. We can only hope (and pray) it helps with some of the behaviors.

{{I know, this sweet face can be deceiving}}

he's awesome

We could not have been more proud of our little man than we were on Tuesday. Paxton owned that surgery!  We had to check in at the Sanford Surgical Tower at 7:15am. And then we waited. Paxton couldn't have anything to eat or drink so we expected the morning to be rough, especially for our boy who loves his breakfast. But it wasn't.  Not one time did he say anything about eating or drinking.

The nursing staff had him wrapped around their fingers. He's such a little man. When it came time for him to go, he hopped in the wagon and waved us off.  Didn't even want his mama one teeeeny tiny bit.

From the time he left us until he was back in my arms was right around 1 hour. Some whimpering when he saw me. You could tell he was very uncomfortable, but for the most part slept the anesthesia off.

The nurses let him sleep in my arms for about an hour and then we had to try to get him to wake up and make sure he would take fluids. He would have much rather slept. 5 hours from when we checked in we were checking back out and on our way back to Brandon.

He then slept the afternoon away.

He's doing great. He had a lot of blood draining out of his nose the first couple of days, but that has since decreased drastically. He's done a lot of sleeping and isn't back to his "normal" self, but he's getting there. He is such a tough little guy and we love him soo much!

needing this boy healthy

Paxton is our child who is constantly sick. I'm not kidding you...we hold out for an antibiotic as long as we can, but that's what it takes. And not just a mild amoxicillin, he needs something strong. We get a 10 day dose and maybe by day 8 or 9 we start to see a difference and we have a healthy boy for about a week after that. Then the nose starts to run again and within a few days it's thick and green and he's got himself a terrible cough. This is his life...poor little guy. I honestly don't think he knows what it's like to "feel good" and that makes me sad.

At the end of October, he had a CT scan done of his sinuses.

[he was a rock star by the way]

His scan showed that Paxton has significant swelling and inflammation of the sinuses as well as very large turbinates. Not only does he have chronic sinusitis, but his nasal passages are very small.

The Plan:
We've tried all the medical intervention we can -- nasal steroids, saline rinses, and allergy medication.  Our next step is a surgical intervention. So here is what's planned....
1. PE tubes -- he had tubes placed in his ears at about 10 months of age. He still has the tubes but they are starting to fall out. These will be reinserted.
2. Adenoidectomy
3. Nasal Lavage -- (just a fancy term for cleaning out the sinuses ;)
4. Turbinate Reduction

We are really hoping this clears up a lot of his sinus problems and upper respiratory infections. We do believe he has allergies as well. This surgery will not take away the allergies, but will definitely alleviate his symptoms related to allergies. Then, we should be able to treat the allergies effectively with over the counter allergy medications.

And...when is all this happening?  Tomorrow (11/11).  Please pray it all goes smoothly and we can get our boy feeling better.

sleep study

So this is what we're lucky enough to be doing tonight. We've been down many paths with Kenley and here's where we're at now. The purpose of this sleep study is to see whether her sleeping patterns are contributing to some of her behaviors/aggression during the day. Just like her behaviors, her sleep is just as inconsistent. We have good nights and we have bad nights. And when they're bad, it's rough! Kenley wakes up screaming! And thrashing herself around in her bed. She kicks her feet to the point that if she were next to a wall, we'd worry she would put a hole in it. And on these nights, if she wakes up once, we're in for the long haul because we know it's going to happen multiple times throughout that night.

So to be honest, I don't really know what I'm hoping for...a restful night or one that might give us some answers.

She was a rock star though. A little scared only a couple of times but no tears and no refusals!! (It must have been all the prepping we've done :)  After reading a book, she fell right to sleep.

{dinner with nene before heading to the hospital}

 



{even Belle got set up for her very own sleep study}

{I don't know how anyone would be able to sleep like this}

 

 

But she did. She slept better than mama. It was a bit of a rough night but not terrible. This morning though, she was a tangled mess. It took the nurse a long time to get her undone!  We put her in the shower to get all the goop out of her hair, were provided breakfast, and we were out of there by 7:00am.

 

We have no results yet. All I know is that I'm one tired mama!!

last week

Last week was busy with the excitement of Halloween. The kids didn't quite understand why they couldn't wear their costumes 24/7.  We spent Thursday in Sioux Falls for dr. appointments for Paxton. I put him down for a nap at grandma and grandpa's and he didn't wake until close to 4:30! So we got back home much later than I had wanted, as I knew we had a busy night ahead of us.

We started the night with pizza and the carving of pumpkins.  They weren't sure what to think when daddy took the top off. Kaden was intrigued. Kenley looked like she was going to throw up. And Paxton wanted NOTHING to do with any of it.  It took her a little time, but we did coax Ken into digging out the guts.

After that, we had a project to do for preschool the following day. The kids were able to bring a treat to pass out to their friends. So we quickly "mummified" some juice boxes and called it good.

And the last thing was to fix some costumes so they fit just right and pack them in their school bags. Then it was off to baths and bed time for the little munchkins.

Friday the twins got to have a party at school.

After daycare, we ran home to finish packing and grab daddy, then we were off to Brandon.  It was a mad rush to get the kids fed and bundled in their costumes.

After everyone was ready, Kenley decided that she no longer wanted to be a scarecrow. Thank goodness it was short lived and she didn't lose her cool....because that would have blown our whole night. We started out around the block. About half way around Paxton started coughing and coughing and struggling to breath.  Nene and grandpa took him back for a nebulizer treatment and the rest of us continued on to the next block.  I was so proud of these kids.  They knew just what to do and used their best manners in the process.  What a fun night!

Until next week...