That's that.

Well hello again.

We're home safe and sound, going over medication instructions and warming up some soup for Karee's pretty-gosh-darned-sore-throat.

The procedure went really quite well - the doctors went in there and did their thing successfully, and it seemed almost anti-climactic! Some of our medical friends have been saying that "you don't want to be an interesting patient" and while I think Karee used to be an interesting patient, she's becoming less interesting now, and we're totally fine with it!

The ENT showed me pictures that showed before and after and it was pretty darned stunning.  Before showed goopy, lumpy tissue that was difficult to identify, and the after showed a lovely long, open trachea.  No complications, nuthin'! We'll check in with him in 7-10 days and go from there.  He felt very good about the procedure.

The pulmonologist did the bronchoscopy as before- there was some additional scar tissue to be removed, and he rinsed out the lung again, took some biopsies, but didn't think anything looked out of the ordinary.  Perhaps surprisingly, it was the airway to the right lung that looked more inflamed than the left, while it was the left one that was completely covered by scar tissue a month ago.  Somehow the leading edge of the scar tissue remained more active, while the scar tissue that had been there longer was a bit more passive?  So yes, he removed some tissue from the right airway and it's clean now, but the pictures show much of the tissue to be rather inflamed, or in his words, "angry".  Looking at the pictures, 'angry' feels about right!

Karee was in very good spirits all morning - lots of our usual banter and silliness.  That started to wane when the procedure was put off (the previous operation in the O.R. was running long) and she was finally wheeled into the O.R. an hour and fifteen minutes late.  I didn't get to see her until 5:45 or so - she had woken up pretty drowsy still and feeling nauseous so they gave her some nausea medicine and that knocked her out for a good hour plus.

At this point she's up and about moving slowly and gingerly, but she's home!

Thanks to everyone for constant support and good wishes, those near and far.  Special thanks to my 'visitors' and hand-holders today - Dick Evans, Kristi Sandusky, and Jerry "Poppy" Justice!  Good conversations all around!

Peace - I'm tired and will be going to bed shortly!

Steve