Update

So actually there is a TON to update on but I will do some news in another post. Last week of March we were in Cincinnati to see hunters new doctors there. We met with Dr. Rutter the ENT, Dr. Boesch Pulmonology, Dr. Putnam GI. They really know what they are doing there. I like that they have "seen it all" so hunters case was very routine and they assured us of their help. That's all I really wanted to hear. Our ENT locally I feel, would have just played the "let's wait and see" game with Hunter.

Dr. Rutter said he found no webbing in his airway or signs of tracheolmalacia(floppy airway). That is great because we previously were told Hunter had both. Dr. Boesch said his lungs looked great. Dr. Putnam placed an impedance probe down hunters esophagous to measure the amount of any of reflux. We are still waiting on official results back but he said all looked good from what he could see. Overall all the doctors were comfortable with going forward with surgery to fix hunters airway.

Hunter is going to have a Laryngotracheolplasty(LTP) with anterior rib graft. Basically they will take a piece of rib cartilage and use that to create a graft piece to widen the trachea. Here is a link to a very informative website about it, http://tracheostomy.com/resources/surgery/ltp1.htm.


We have scheduled Hunter's surgery for May 2nd! OMG that is so close...I thought it would be farther out than that but that's when they can do and why wait longer? I'm excited and terrified. It's a big surgery, 4-5 hours long and Hunter will be sedated and on a ventilator for up to a week or so. Then they will slowly wean him off the vent and he may or may not be sedated still depending on how still he can be...hmm toddler being still, I don't think so...The surgery has a great success rate and the extra good thing is that Hunter is otherwise healthy. So that always helps when having a big surgery done.

I *plan* on blogging daily about the surgery and what Hunter and we (Jeremy and I) are going through.

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