Well, I guess I can say I've been admonished. As if having several of you comment on my non-posting wasn't enough, my husband had to go and post FOR me! (Personally, I would LOVE it if he wrote more posts. It's always fun to hear things from his point of view). Anyway, I've been agonizing about posting, because it's been so long and I have neglected to write about so many things going on in our life, anyway. I just don't want to have to remember everything I need to recap. So I am just going to start with today's post, and if you happen to get updated on our lives here or in the future, then great. If not, I'm sorry, but I'm sure you'll survive.
The biggest thing recently has been Ainsley's surgery, which Derrick wrote a bit about. For those of you who want more details, this is what happened: Ainsley had been fighting an ear infection, which turned into a double ear infection, for a couple of weeks. After trying a couple different antibiotics, she was not getting better. Then we discovered a couple of lumps on her neck, so I called her doctor, and since one of the lumps was a little red, they were concerned and had me bring her in.
Ainsley's regular doctor had his day off that day, so I saw another doctor in the practice. He was shocked that the lumps were so large. He said that he had never seen such large glands on such a little baby. So after measuring the lumps, he sent me over to the hospital to have some blood tests done. That was one of the saddest experiences ever! I had to hold Ainsley in my lap and keep her from moving so that the two nurses could draw enough blood from her for all of the tests the doctor had ordered. They had to re-insert the needle 3 times because Ainsley was being so strong and trying to get away from the nurses. It was so sad! Her cry was so awful! A concerned lady even came back to make sure the poor baby was alright.
Anyway, we got that done, and I had to go back to the doctor's office so that Ainsley could get an antibiotic shot. In case you were wondering, Ainsley was a little wary of people in scrubs at this point. Then we made an appointment to go back in and see the doctor the next morning.
Saturday morning, I took her in, and the doctor ordered another antibiotic shot for Ainsley. He had received some of the test results back, and they pretty much showed that Ainsley had an infection, and that her body was trying to fight it. But since she was getting worse, her body was obviously losing the battle. The doctor was a little concerned that some of the blood cell counts were SO high, so he wanted me to bring Ainsley back in on Monday to see her regular doctor. He said he was concerned enough from the results of the tests, and the fact that he had never seen such huge lumps on a baby this age, that he didn't want to consider it just an infection and let her go. He mentioned something about not ruling out cancer, although he did truly think it was just an infection. I decided not to get too worried about the worst case scenario unless we actually got to that point, as I really felt like it was just an infection, as well.
We took her in to her regular doctor on Monday, and both of the glands were very red at this point, which is apparently a sign that she isn't fighting the infection. He wanted to get a good scan of the lumps to verify if there was fluid in them, and since she was so little, she'd have to be put under to get a CT (?) scan, so the doctor opted to have us go get an ultrasound done. So Tuesday morning we took her down to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to have the ultrasound done, then went back to her doctor that afternoon. The result of the ultrasound was that she had some pockets of fluid, however they weren't too large to require that we have them drained. One of the lumps had started softening that afternoon, which isn't a good sign, so my doctor called up to Primary Children's and spoke with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor about scheduling a possible draining in a couple of days, in case things didn't start improving. In talking with the doctor up there, we learned that a lot of times the pockets of liquid end up being twice the size as what is shown in an ultrasound screening. So the doctor up there advised us to go up to Primary Children's right away so that they could evaluate Ainsley and get things started. So we went.
After Ainsley was finally admitted and had her IV inserted (another exciting experience--poor grandma Shonnie was in tears and had to leave), they took her back to get a good scan on the glands. They decided that instead of putting her under for the scan, they would try giving her a calming drug and hope that she'd stay still enough to get a good picture. It was hilarious to see Ainsley on this drug. She was SO happy! And happily, it worked and we were able to get some accurate pictures. The doctors decided to do surgery that night---a good thing since Ainsley hadn't been able to eat since 3:00 that afternoon, in case they did the surgery. The surgery was really short and simple. About 30 minutes total. Everything went as they had suspected. They drained the glands, and left in some tubes so that they could continue draining. The tubes were left in until Thursday morning, when they were removed and we were able to go home.
I have to say, I was SO impressed with ALL of the staff at Primary Children's. The doctors, nurses and techs were all so great to work with. They seemed to really enjoy their jobs, and the children they work with, which was very comforting. It helped make a stressful experience much easier.
Now that Ainsley is back home, we just have to keep her wounds clean while they continue draining and healing. She goes back to see the doctor on the 9th of February. We are so grateful that it all ended up just being an infection. Ainsley was SO good during the whole ordeal, and has been such a happy little girl since we came home.
Below are some photos of Ainsley and her lumps. They really don't do it justice. They were actually a little scary to look at!
Just chillin' at the hospital...
After the surgery. Ainsley was pretty puffy from the IV. We thought she looked pretty funny.
