The Hanway Family

Although Abby's done with chemo, we couldn't stay away from the hospital for long.  Just two days after leaving, we had to head back for an ENT appointment to go over her sleep study results and determine the next steps that need to be taken to get rid of her trach.

Her sleep study was greatly improved from the one in November.  That sleep study showed 30+ obstructive apneas and hypopneas per hour.  This sleep study showed that she only had nine per hour.  A huge improvement!  She also had many central apneas while she was capped, but they noted that these were nearly all after arousals, so were not of any concern.

Abby's ENT feels that most of the obstructive apneas are a result of the trach itself because it takes up such a large amount of her airway.  So he downsized her trach from a 4.0 to a 3.5 while we were in the office.  In two months, we will go back and they will downsize her to a 3.0, then she will be admitted for 48 hours to see how she does with the cap.  If she is able to stay capped for those 48 hours without desatting or showing signs of respiratory distress, then they will take out her trach!

To say that we are excited about the possibility of being a trach family for only two more months is an understatement, but, at the same time, we are trying not to get our hopes up too much because we know that many decannulations fail on their first attempt.

This post is a little late, but as of last Tuesday, May 15th, Abby is done with chemo!  This is a day that, 15 months ago, we weren't sure we would ever see.  It was very nice that Mom, April and Chris were able to celebrate with us.  The nurses threw Abby an end of treatment party, complete with a purple Dora cake - they know her so well that they didn't even have to ask what her dream cake would be.  Abby loved it all and declared it the best party ever!  I have to agree.