under the tongue swelling & back to children's

Chompin' on medical supplies... trying to keep a one year old boy busy at the hospital is hilarious!



Throwing blocks out of his crib. (Both pics taken from my phone, sorry!)

Just wanted to post a quick entry to let everyone know what's going on!

Tuesday morning we noticed some new swelling on Noah's left (smaller side) of his face. We were a little bummed of course but whatever, we're used to this swelling. So I called the Oto clinic in Seattle and talked to Dr. Perkins' nurses, who called in a prescription for steroids & antibiotics. It's so annoying that the risk to his airway is so high that we are forced to put him on these any time there's big swelling. I hate it!

Then thursday morning when Noah woke up I noticed some increased swelling under the floor of his mouth, coming from the same side. It's always been a little cystic under his tongue but never super swollen. This time you could actually see the anatomy of the cyst, and you could tell that a little blood had gotten in to it. So I called Children's again to let them know that the swelling had changed, but that I wasn't too concerned.

After his nap the swelling had gotten much worse, and lots more blood had gotten in to the cyst. It was super swollen, pushing his tongue up, full of blood, and looked like a huge blister under there. It was weird to see it in such plain view what those monsters look like! So I called the on-call ENT at Children's who consulted with Dr. Perkins, and Perkins said he wanted to admit Noah because of the location of the cyst and the speed at which it was growing. Apparently under-the-tongue cysts are some of the most dangerous because they put pressure on the airway. Plus, it seemed to be getting bigger much rapidly.

So we rushed to Seattle after getting Ella's care taken care of, thanks to my pushy mom forcing us to leave her in Wenatchee and just focus on Noah. Kyle said sometimes he likes how pushy she is, and this was one of them. I said sometimes! :)

So he's been on IV steroids and antibiotics, and his oxygenations have been monitored around the clock. His breathing has been great (slightly imperfect while he's sleeping, but that's common). We met with Perkins today to discuss the current plan... which is basically staying the same. If the swelling continues to happen as frequent as it has been in the past couple of months, we will discuss surgery for this spring. We want to get through the winter and cold & flu season if possible. Dr. Perkins reiterated that the longer we are able to wait with these suckers, the better outcomes we have. Kyle and I agree, we want to wait as long as possible and trust that God's taking care of him. It's hard trying to figure out the magic time. We are sure that Noah will eventually need surgery, it's just a matter of when.

So we are staying at Children's one more night and then Noah will remain on medication for the next month to control swelling.

We can't wait to see Ella tomorrow! Thanks for checking in, and as always thank you for all the prayers! Noah truly is a miracle boy.

Next week he will be ONE! :)