I guess I didn't realize how much I may have bitten off by scheduling three surgeries in one month. Lots of pre-op testing and appointments have been keeping me busy. Then I wasn't really considering recovery time AND the fact that we have a little three day family get away planned in the middle of it all that we've had planned since the beginning of summer.
Yesterday Caleb went and had a thyroid sonogram evaluation done just to make sure that the mass we found on his neck has nothing to do with his thyroid. He was the model patient and he sat completly still and watched the images intently like he was watching his favorite cartoon. Today already his ENT at Children's called and said that his thyroid looks great and they will go forward expecting that this is a Thyroglossal Duct Cyst as originally thought. He said that he won't know for a fact that it is that until they get in there and see. Best case its just a little mass thats not thyroglossal duct related and they snip it and remove it. If it is a Thyroglossal Duct Cyst they will have to travel up to the bottom part of the tongue to remove cyst which will be a little more involved but not much.
Today Tristin went in for her pre-op appointment. She will be having her tonsils out next Monday. All other four children already have their tonsils and adenoids out and not sure how Tristin got missed but her throat has been a mess for months and the tonsil stones are record size....yuck!!! We enrolled her in a case study to take and extra step in pain management. She will apply a topical medicine to her entire neck four times a day for a week to help with pain. Anxious to see how it works for her. I have heard time and time again that the older you are the harder it is to get your tonsils out. With Tristin being 17 she's considered an adult and has been warned that there will be some extreme pain for several days. I still have my tonsils so I am no good at giving advice on what to expect.
Caleb and Isaac are both having surgery on October 31st. This was the surgery that was postponed from September 19th due to conflicting schedules with surgeons. Caleb will have five procedure done. He will have dental work with extractions, ear tubes placed, an airway assessment done due to his surgery on June 16th that had to be cancelled due to unstable airways, the mass removed from his neck and a hernia repair performed. Isaac will have three procedures done, the dental work with extractions, he has two perforated ear drums that they are going to see if they need repaired or left alone and a scope to assess his airway as well since they usually have identical issues all the time.
Both boys have Subglottic Stenosis (narrow airways). We have known this since they were infants that they both have this condition. This is something that should not get worse but basically just stay the same as they grow. It is my understanding that the stenosis will grow with them but always be smaller than normal size. When Caleb could not be intubated in June they came out and said he has a 60% narrowing, more than was on record from the last surgery. They are assuming he has some scar tissue forming or growing from previous intubations, this is why they are going to do an airway assessment. Since they are both at risk for intubation they decided to get as many procedures done as possible with this next surgery date.
Asking for prayers that all surgeries go well. This will be Tristins second surgery (her first surgery was when she was two) and the twins, umteenth...really lost count....surgery.
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