News!

Lots of news from our family!

We are so happy to let y'all know that A is becoming VeeGee. The adoption process is moving along, and we're hoping to have it finalized within the next couple of months. Our hope is that VeeGee's birth mother will continue to be a part of VeeGee's life, and that, though this will be a difficult transition, peace will, nevertheless, abound.

And in other news, VeeGee began her several day process of decannulation today at Vanderbilt, which means, they're starting to wean her off of her tracheostomy tube. This first day (today) was a bronchoscopy, during which her otolaryngologist looked down her airway to assess for viability. Tomorrow he will insert a modified tracheostomy tube which will force her to breathe through her mouth. They will monitor her for twenty-four hours, watching for signs of desaturation and labored breath. If she is able to breathe normally, the doctor will simply remove the trach and apply a dressing. They'll observe her one more night and then we'll come home. The hole should heal within a month, but if it doesn't, she'll have to have surgery to close it.

During the bronchoscopy, though, Dr. G didn't like the condition of her airway, saying that it was pretty narrow (made him "unhappy"), and that there had been some collapse of the airway above the tracheostomy tube, known as "suprastomal tracheomalacia." This may cause her to be unable to be decannulated without another surgery called Laryngotracheal Reconstruction. In this type of surgery, the narrow areas of the glottis or subglottis are opened up, and carefully shaped pieces of the VeeGee's rib cartilage are placed to widen the narrow areas. The recovery from this procedure is fairly lengthy.

Dr. G said that he had seen a few patients with airway's as small as VeeGee's who had done well enough to avoid further surgery, but he wasn't overly confident that she would be able to do so. There are also complicating factors, he thinks, with her lungs, which we already knew to not be in the best condition. So, there may need to be a pulmonologist pulled in to the team.

She's just woken up from the anesthesia and is very active, so I'll sign off. We're not getting a room tonight because the hospital is full, unfortunately. Pray that we can get one tomorrow morning! Thanks, as always, for your love, encouragement and support.