Surgical Update

Hi everyone,

As some of you may know, Noah had to go to the hospital last Friday for the doctor to have a look at his airway. This scopy had to be done under a complete narcosis, which is always a bit worrying. Anyway, he is recovering really well from it, he was awake happy after the procedure.
Saturday a quiet day with an afternoon nap, but he seems back to normal today, so that is all good.

So what did the doctor see?
Well I only saw him shortly directly after Noah came out of surgery, we will have an appointment in 2 weeks when he has had time to review everything and discuss with his colleagues. But the short message was that Noah's airway is very very small in 2 areas. The first one is around his vocal cords (which they didn't see themselves, but where they are supposed to be). There is formation of scar tissue there and the two pieces of cartilage where the vocal cords attach seems to have fused together.
A lower area, just beneath where the previous operation was done is also narrowed. Here it seems like the cartilage ring that keeps his airway open is just very very small. Both of these problems together mean that Noah is still fully dependent on his canule for breathing, as he can not breathe  through his natural airway. So: another operation may be in order. Since the first operation did not give us the desired result, we are not too confident that a second try will give any better results.

Oh well, we'll see what they come up with this time, and current thinking is to try and get Noah a second opinion with one of the US doctors that have done airway reconstruction surgery recently. Hopefully the insurance will okay it, but it not going to be an easy option either.  However, as all of us know, we will do anything for those we love.

Thijs