The ENT dr. came this evening. He put a scope down Katie's airway, but we still don't know much. What we learned today is that her upper airway to her vocal cords look good. The ENT is going to suggest that next we do a lower airway scope. This kind os a bit more complicated b/c she has to be taked to an OR to be put under. He wants to run everything by Katie's neonatologist in the morning.

When I asked what would PROBABLY happen, he said that we'd do the other scope, and he expected to find swelling and/or scar tissue in her subglottal area (that's just below the vocal cords). Since she's been extubated for 3 weeks now and the problem has not fixed itself, he thinks we'll need to do the cricoid split (that might be spelled wrong, that's the closest I can get). That will enlarge the airway so it will be easier for her to breathe. She would have to be totally sedated for a week and reintubated until she healed up. Of course, we won't know for sure what will happen until he gets in to have a better look. He basically said that she's had 3 weeks to grow, and 3 weeks of steroids and breathing treatments, but she hasn't been as successful as she needs to be, so it's time to look at something else.

I thought I would be a lot more nervous at the talk of surgery. I'm so tired of being anxious and feeling sick to my stomach 90% of the day, I'm just ready to fix whatever the problem is so we can move on. I'm tired of EVERYTHING being up in the air. I need to know things for SURE and I need to be able to PLAN things. While I'm on a rant, here are things I'm tired of.....people who come by and say, "Are you still here?", people who can't merge, yeild or drive in general, people who drive tiny cars and still can't park between the dang lines in the parking garage, and loud parents in the NICU. Gripe time is over :-)