'Twill be a BUSY October

Today was the first of many trips to UW this month.  It was a foggy drive early this morning but once the sun came out this afternoon, it was a beautiful fall day.  The turning trees are so so pretty and the moon rising this evening was amazing.  God created a beautiful creation!

This morning our first appointment was with Dr. Hillel, the larynx doctor.  Les was scheduled for Botox but had decided against it.  He feels like he is getting a bit of swallowing back and doesn't want to lose that!  Les mostly wanted to discuss the laryngectomy surgery.  We had a good discussion with Dr. Hillel about this and Dr. is quite confident this would be a successful surgery.  What Dr. would do is remove the larynx.  He would take the top of the trachea tube and attach it to Les' trach opening in neck and that would be Les' breathing tube (and the plastic trach tube could be taken out!).  Dr. would create a separate tube through the esophagus.  This would allow Les to swallow again (hopefully!!) and the chance of aspirating would be much less.  It's a bit more complicated than this, but in a nutshell this would be the procedure.  Dr. Hillel has done 5 of these in his career, which tells us how rare it is.  BUT if Les can eat again and decrease his chance of aspirating, we feel it would be a good thing. Doctor would also remove two of Les' saliva glands at the same time.  This would be awesome because of all the excess saliva Les has--and then no need of Botox anymore!

Second appointment was with Physical Therapy to fit a wheelchair.  We found out today that a wheelchair can take up to 2-3 months, so we felt like it was time!  Les is tall; if our insurance would cover most of a wheelchair, we feel it would be beneficial to custom order one.  He is getting more unsteady on his feet and we know that he will be dependent on a wheelchair in the future.

Crazy driver!!

Last appointment was with a new doctor in a new department.  Dr. Benditt of Pulmonary.  This ended up being a 2 hour appointment!  First we met with his associate, which is normal at this teaching hospital.  Then Les did some testing with Gil, the lung guy. He could only do a simple lung test through the trach tube, but what he could do was encouraging to us.  Gil felt like Les' lungs have not deteriorated too much since 3 months ago.  Another more sophisticated test will be done in the future.  Gil also worked with Les on the cough assist machine (which we already have) and showed Les how this helps with coughing up gunk through the trach tube.  SO much more efficient than the small portable suction machines we have!  We FINALLY met with Dr. Benditt.  He agrees that the larynx surgery would be a very beneficial surgery for Les.  He would like Les to participate in a sleep study after the larynx surgery.

All in all, it was a very encouraging day.  Les at this point is excited about trying this surgery.  We were encouraged with all we heard today.  Next Wednesday is our 3 month check with Dr. Weiss and we will double check with him about the larynx surgery.

Thanks for your prayers today.  Thanks to the soup fairy and the window cleaning fairy.  We are loved and we feel it!!