Guest guest Posted February 15, 2000 Report Share Posted February 15, 2000 sheryl, does jessica have cranial nerve damage and is she trached? Did she also have a small jaw and were her glands in her mouth bulging? Betsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 15, 2000 Report Share Posted February 15, 2000 Betsy, does have facial palsy of the right side so yes, there is some cranial nerve involvement. We were able to keep away from a trach but she is an aspirator. She has developed a good strong cough that helps get it back out of her lungs before pneumonia. She also has learned some other survival techniques over the years, like pushing on her throat where her fistula was. She still pushes for swallow. Her jaw is tight but I don't know if we have ever looked into size as it has not seemed to be an issue with her. Her salivary glands do not seem to bulge but they are heavy producers. We are doing exercises to strengthen her muscles for oral motor. This may or may not also help with handling some of these secretions. I have some photos of her and her brother out on www.clubphoto.com. You can view them if you would like by putting in my e-mail address. Let me know if you have anymore questions or If I can be of any help. Sheryl, Mom to Mitch 14 and 13 CHARGE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 16, 2000 Report Share Posted February 16, 2000 Hi Sheryl and Betsy, I haven't kept up much with the list lately, but I saw this posting this morning. We are the family from KC that Sheryl is referring to. My daughter, Aubrey, who is 16 months old had her two lower salivary glands removed and the ones in front of the ears tied off when she was 13 months old. It was done in Cincinnati by Dr. Cotton. It totally stopped her drooling out of the mouth. Aubrey has a trach and she cannot get rid of the trach until she learns to not aspirate on her secretions. She does not swallow much at all. Our goal was to help her by reducing the amount of secretions. Therefore, even if she doesn't swallow well, we could still look at getting rid of the trach eventually if we can remove the problem of her aspirating on so many secretions. We are going back in May for a follow-up. Some " side effects " Aubrey has had from the surgery: Her breath smells bad a lot of the time now, I guess because she is not producing so many secretions? Several times her cheeks have gotten hard knots in them and swollen up and we've had to put her on an antibiotic to help. At first we were told this is uncommon, then we were told it is very common. It hasn't happened for about 3 weeks now, so maybe it is finally over. I think it has something to do with the glands still trying to produce secretions and they can't get past the tied off area and so they have no where to go. Other than that, she seems to be doing well with it. The surgery didn't take long and she was released out of the hospital the next day around noon. Bradley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 16, 2000 Report Share Posted February 16, 2000 Hi Sheryl and Betsy, I haven't kept up much with the list lately, but I saw this posting this morning. We are the family from KC that Sheryl is referring to. My daughter, Aubrey, who is 16 months old had her two lower salivary glands removed and the ones in front of the ears tied off when she was 13 months old. It was done in Cincinnati by Dr. Cotton. It totally stopped her drooling out of the mouth. Aubrey has a trach and she cannot get rid of the trach until she learns to not aspirate on her secretions. She does not swallow much at all. Our goal was to help her by reducing the amount of secretions. Therefore, even if she doesn't swallow well, we could still look at getting rid of the trach eventually if we can remove the problem of her aspirating on so many secretions. We are going back in May for a follow-up. Some " side effects " Aubrey has had from the surgery: Her breath smells bad a lot of the time now, I guess because she is not producing so many secretions? Several times her cheeks have gotten hard knots in them and swollen up and we've had to put her on an antibiotic to help. At first we were told this is uncommon, then we were told it is very common. It hasn't happened for about 3 weeks now, so maybe it is finally over. I think it has something to do with the glands still trying to produce secretions and they can't get past the tied off area and so they have no where to go. Other than that, she seems to be doing well with it. The surgery didn't take long and she was released out of the hospital the next day around noon. Bradley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 16, 2000 Report Share Posted February 16, 2000 Hi Sheryl and Betsy, I haven't kept up much with the list lately, but I saw this posting this morning. We are the family from KC that Sheryl is referring to. My daughter, Aubrey, who is 16 months old had her two lower salivary glands removed and the ones in front of the ears tied off when she was 13 months old. It was done in Cincinnati by Dr. Cotton. It totally stopped her drooling out of the mouth. Aubrey has a trach and she cannot get rid of the trach until she learns to not aspirate on her secretions. She does not swallow much at all. Our goal was to help her by reducing the amount of secretions. Therefore, even if she doesn't swallow well, we could still look at getting rid of the trach eventually if we can remove the problem of her aspirating on so many secretions. We are going back in May for a follow-up. Some " side effects " Aubrey has had from the surgery: Her breath smells bad a lot of the time now, I guess because she is not producing so many secretions? Several times her cheeks have gotten hard knots in them and swollen up and we've had to put her on an antibiotic to help. At first we were told this is uncommon, then we were told it is very common. It hasn't happened for about 3 weeks now, so maybe it is finally over. I think it has something to do with the glands still trying to produce secretions and they can't get past the tied off area and so they have no where to go. Other than that, she seems to be doing well with it. The surgery didn't take long and she was released out of the hospital the next day around noon. Bradley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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