Surgery #10 coming right up

#1 Open Heart Surgery

#2 Gastronomy Tube

#3 Tracheostomy 

#4 Open Heart Surgery

#5 Ear Tubes and Bronchoscopy

#6 Palate Repair and Ear Tubes (take two)

#7 Trach Removal and Bronchoscopy and Ear Tubes (take three)

#8 Tonsillectomy, Adenoidectomy, Bronchoscopy and Ear Tubes (gotta keep 'em fresh!)

#9 Inferior Turbinate Reduction, Bronchoscopy and Ear Tubes (yep, another new pair!)

#10 ...................................................................................there will be ear tubes, fear not.

I don't take any surgery lightly and I have to cope somehow so you get my sarcastic humor.  

Lydia will be having her 10th surgery in 2021, most likely October.  It will have been two entire years since she's had a surgery and that was a nice break.  We need a few services to align on a day that we can make it work.  ENT, Radiology, and Pulmonology.  So, what are they going to do?

1. Fresh set of big kid ear tubes.  Instead of the kind that looks like spools of thread, this is more of a T shape and should stay in longer.

2. Take a camera from her nose to her lungs, yep, all the way down to check for any and all airway obstructions including adenoids, laryngomalacia, concave at the trach site, obstruction from the aortic arch repair.  

3.  Adenoidectomy, again, because hers are enlarged and/or growing back and are at about a 90% obstruction, thus why she is on CPAP.  This won't be to get her off CPAP, only to help lessen her need and the obstruction, making it safer for her to sleep.

4. Supraglottic laryngectomy, which basically trims off the top of the larynx or the supraglottis that, on Lydia, is floppy and obstructing her breathing.  This will also not get her off CPAP, but will help her sleep safer with less obstruction.

5. CT Scan of her airway, lungs and heart repairs.  Images that they can't always get while she's awake and moving and that aren't very clear on her echo since it all sits on top of one another in her little body.

That's it!  That's all we're doing.  I always hope for the first surgery of the day so we aren't delayed and can settle into a room before shift change.  The early morning is rough but we have fewer waking hours of hungry Lydia that way.  Predicted to be a one night stay and Lydia usually lives up to those expectations with ENT procedures.  Now, surgery during Covid and in the thick of flu and rsv season, there could be better timing on that. This kid needs to breathe though and CPAP is doing wonders but this could make it even better = safer.