Surgery Outcome

Okay... here we go. Now that we are 36hours post-op I can actually function and write. Had I blogged yesterday, I would have inserted*tear*tear*and more *tears.* It has definitely not been easy, in fact it has been hard, real hard. I sometimes wonder if maybe we should have waited till she was 4. Surgery lasted about 5hours to a tee. They called us to a quiet room so Dr. Cotton and his staff could debrief us of how things actually went. Initially they were going to recover one or two ribs and place them anteriorly/posteriorly in her trachea to widen it. However, the docs realized her original trach/stoma (hole for her trachin her neck) was placed way too high and this area is where they needed to open it up about 2addtl inches to perform this LTP surgery. Therefore, they had to give her a brand new stoma (yep-a whole new hole for a whole new trach)lower down her tracheal. I always said I would do it all over again for Tacori if I had to but really never thought I would. Thats what I get So she has a brand new trach that needs to heal all over again on top of surgery. Once the docs placed the new trach they realized her airway was soooo teeny tiny, they thought it would be better to only place one rib graft anteriorly and posteriorly they ended up doing a cricoid split. This means they cut her vocal cords open to help open some space within her trachea. Which also means her voice (if any) will be more hoarse than we thought. They removed "tons" of old scar tissue per the docs and then placed a stent (looks like a plastic hot dog) in her airway to help hold the rib graft in place during the healing process. all in all it went well. Our original stay was supposed to be 10-14 days but Dr. Cotton wants to change plans and have us here for 3 wks before he even thinks about letting us head back to California. So Allen (my new boss) if you are reading this, I will be calling you tomorrow.