Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Andie

As most of you may know Andie has struggled with ear problems her whole life. We have had tubes put in three times and finally 3 years ago we thought we had gotten on top of the ear infections. Her left ear tube fell out finally but we never saw the right one, but there were no infections so we were grateful. About a month ago she was complaining of ear pain so we took her in and the Doc tried to clean out the earwax build up so he could see her eardrum, but no luck. A week later we were back in, but he still could not see if she had an infection. Two days later we were in the ER at 10:30 pm with a ruptured eardrum. Ten days later she was finished with her Meds and two days after that it ruptured again. We got her on some really heavy meds and she seemed to be doing better until yesterday when her teacher called me and told me her ear was bleeding.

Johnathan came home from class and I took her back up to the ER. After the doctor started cleaning the ear out he became rather concerned and stopped to call a Ear Nose and Throat specialist, 10 minutes later we had an appointment for later that day. The ER doc suspected Cholesteatoma, he didn't give me very many specifics but what he did say didn't sound good. We packed up and came home, searched the Internet, and waited for our appointment later that day.

So what is Cholesteatoma? It is when dead skin cells come together and then mutate from smooth cells to spinney cells and form an aggressive tumor like mass. It then erodes away anything it is around, flesh, muscle, tissue and even bone. If left untreated it can cause deafness, paralysis and even Death. Yeah!

Armed with this info Andie and I went to see Doc. McMasters. He took one look at the bits and pieces that were coming out of her ear and said, "Yep, it is Cholesteatoma." Things went really fast after that, we set up Surgery on Thursday of this week and he ordered steroid drops to try to shrink the existing Cholesteatoma. He is hoping that the mass is only on the outside of her eardrum and that he can scrape it away on Thursday. If he does that and finds that it has moved back into her middle ear and past her eardrum than more extensive and aggressive surgery will be needed. So we are praying that this will all be resolved this Thursday, but it has been kind of a scary few days. Johnathan has given Andie a Priesthood Blessing and we are feeling as comfortable as we can with the whole thing but as a parent this is news that you never want to get. Anyway, just thought we would give an update as to where we are with Andie. Any prayers would be appreciated and we will let everyone know what we find Thursday.

6 comments:

All About DOE said...

Good-luck on Thursday. I hope all goes well. We will keep her in our prayers.

Tara McLean Derricott said...

Good luck. Call if I can help with anything!!!

Weston Harmon said...

Scary! Our prayers are with you. We hope things go well with the surgery.

Jackie B. said...

oh goodness. that is scary news for anyone. Andie & your family are in our prayers!

Cheryl said...

Anna, How are you? That was dumb obviously not good with what's going on with Andie. So glad I found your blog and can stalk you. I'm private but email me your address and I'll add you if you want to stalk me in return.

Anna-Liisa said...

Cheryl, I am kind of a blog virgin and I can't find your email addie.