Officially Grossed Out

Okay, I'm officially grossed out. Let me tell you why.

Victoria has always sounded a little stopped up in the mask of her face, even before surgery. I was never able to really suck anything out of it with a bulb syringe, even though I had tried. I mentioned in an earlier post about a lactation consultant telling me that I could squirt a few drops of breast milk in Victoria's nose and massage it to help suck her boogers out. Well, it has really been working. It's been working so well that I've gotten grossed out quite a few times. Last night was one of those times. Mark and I were both in the living room and while feeding Victoria I stopped for a few minutes to try to suck out her nose. She had been sounding quite stopped up and I didn't want her to go to bed for the night that way. Well, amongst the few smaller treasures I found were several HUGE boogers. They were so big that I cannot believe they came out of her nose! They were bigger than what I've seen in an adult-size nose (not that I make it a habit of looking at adult-size boogers!). I don't mean to get to graphic in my description, but it was awful. I thought I was going to be sick.

I've been trying to look up online if Down Syndrome babies might struggle with this because of smaller nasal passages, but haven't found anything yet. Surely, Victoria's smaller passages has something to do with what is coming out of her nose. I must say, I've never encountered anything like this with my other children and it alarms me quite a bit.

Even in the midst of getting some quite large plugs of mucus out of Victoria's nose, I can still hear more in there when she is breathing. That blows my mind. I cannot believe that she could have more, but from the sounds of it ... there is. I believe I might talk to my pediatrician about this and see if there is a better way to remove all of this mucus. At UAB they had a suction tube and it worked well, but the tube was too small to get large pieces out. Maybe there is something like a larger suction tube that they can direct me to that will help give a better flowing suction to help relieve her sinuses. It makes me sad to think that she has more of these large plugs in her nose. No wonder she has had trouble breathing in the past! There were plenty of obstructions from what I've seen so far. Maybe Mama can help her little Victoria breathe better soon!

PS - Sorry to gross anyone out. This is a very real part of Victoria's life, although it's very yucky. So, pray that we can get her cleaned out well so she can breathe easier! You can hear how stopped up Victoria is in this video. What sounds like snoring is more mucus plugs that I need to get out. Poor girl!

PSS - In doing a search for this particular topic today, I came across another blog of a mom who has a little girl with Downs. Their little girl is so cute. I thought I'd share her blog with you. I can picture Victoria growing up to be like their little girl. The blog address is: http://thebalsisfamily.blogspot.com/


PSSS - Today Elyssa and Natalie wore the dresses that Mrs. Syble gave them to church. Natalie didn't really cooperate for the photo, however. You get the idea, though! Cute dresses!