Update on Me

So I have some serious news for you. In early November, my mom and dad took me back up to Mayo, and it looks like my last surgery didn't work. For some reason the stitch didn't hold my vocal cord over and it moved back to where it was before. So my airway is again too small. I am also working so hard to breathe that my body is having trouble growing. So mom and dad decided with the doctors that I needed something else done.

Dr. Thompson at Mayo suggested a Posterior Cartlidge Graft. This is where they will take a piece of cartlidge from my rib area and use it to open up the back part of my vocal cords to open up my airway. They will use a laser to cut between the cords to make a place for the rib graft. Dr. Thompson from Mayo suggested doing the suregery open, where they would cut my throat from the outside. This is very invasinve and rough on me. Mom did some research and found a doctor in Chicago, Dr. Mark Gerber, that does the procedure endoscopicly, or by putting all of the instruments for the surgery down through my mouth and into my throat. After talking with all of the doctors everyone decided this was the best way to go.

So on the 30th we will be heading to Chicago. I will have my surgery on the 31st with Dr. Gerber. I will have a breathing tube and will be sedated for a day or two. Hopefully I will be out of the hospital a few days after that, and able to leave Chicago for home a week or two after surgery. They say this should fix me for good as long as there are no complications. I am not looking forward to the surgery, but I am looking forward to being able to breathe.

Mom will update my blog regularly when I am in the hospital. She says it is good therapy for her. She isn't the one getting operated on! Please say your prayers for me and the doctors operating so that hopefully this is the last major intervention that needs to be done!