We received the results of Abby's sleep study a few weeks ago. They showed that when she was capped, she had severe obstructive sleep apnea. She had more than 30 episodes an hour of apnea or hypopnea. Therefore, her bronchoscopy that was scheduled as a formality in getting her trach removed turned into trying to determine what the obstruction was. The bronchoscopy showed that the muscle flap has not atrophied like they expected and that it is blocking a large part of her airway near the larynx. She will need another surgery to go in and debulk the flap. Her ENT was hoping to get that done within the next month, but we don't have an date set yet. It will probably delay her chemo anywhere from two weeks to a month, depending on the timing. After she has had a few weeks to heal, they will repeat the sleep study and it should show that she no longer has the obstructive sleep apnea. At that point, we will be able to move forward with decannulation again. During the bronchoscopy, she also had a granuloma removed from her trach site, which should help a little bit with the irritation that she has felt. Her ENT is hopeful that this next surgery will fix a lot of her gagging and vomiting problems because he thinks the placement of the flap is triggering her gag reflex.
Abby has finished two days of her five day chemo. Although we are spending New Year's Eve in the hospital, we are very thankful that we were able to spend Christmas at home. Both the girls had a great Christmas and loved ripping into all the presents.
On the run
9 years ago
