Ding Ding Ding - Round 3

Hi all,

Folks have been asking about my dear wife lately, and while there hasn't been a whole lot to discuss, that's starting to change...

First of all, know that Karee is really doing pretty darned great.  We've been exercising almost every morning for 45 minutes to an hour, either riding bikes or walking.  It's been great - plain and simple.  This is totally new for us, we've never been able to do this, but now we leave the kiddos at home still asleep and we can get out and go.  It's great!

Now, to the current medical situation...  8 days after the trachea shaving, the old E.N.T. said it was still clean and clear.  2 weeks after that however, our new E.N.T. saw plenty of scarring return.  I believe he said her trachea was 40% blocked.  That was not good news.  Karee doesn't feel it much/most of the time.  However, a couple of times a week she'll be coughing something up and it will get stuck at the stenotic (scarred) area, and she can't talk for 5 minutes, sometimes longer.  That's a bit of a drag to put it mildly...

This Tuesday (2 days from now) Karee will go in for an exploratory procedure.  They'll put her all the way under and they're going to take a look at everything there is to see.  Our new E.N.T. will be the head doctor in the room, but our pulmonologist will also be there, as will our good friend and E.N.T. Tyler.  Things they're looking for:  how 'bad' is the scarring in the trachea?  Could it be that it has stopped at 40% blockage or even receded from there, and perhaps (maybe??) we can just leave it alone and she'll be fine?  Or, is she a candidate for a cricoid-tracheal resection?  This is a possible end point that all 3 of our docs have mentioned, but it's not very exciting from our perspective.  In that procedure they will go through the front of her neck, cut away the scarred area, and then reattach the trachea.  I keep envisioning my sloppy cutting through of plastic kitchen piping and then reattaching with the 'O' rings ala Home Depot.  Perhaps not a great analogy to foster?!  Anyway, they will be deciding if this is a good route to take with/for Karee.

Oh, to back up a step, the new E.N.T. after initial observation of Karee's stenosis, was convinced it was some sort of auto-immune disorder, and ordered a huge blood draw.  8 or 10 vials of blood later, we know that she is really very healthy, no positive indications for auto-immune ANYthing and bla bla bla.  They are collectively scratching their heads on this one.  Apparently her case has been presented at a few conferences, and the smartest guys in the room are left scratching their heads.  Ooooh, I just love a woman who's an enigma, don't you?  Well, maybe not in this case!

Anyway, we also are looking forward to hearing what's going on with Karee's lungs, hoping to hear that they look healed and healthy, with no new scar tissue forming.  Hey, a guy can hope, can't he?

Current bottom lines:  Somehow, surely, the stenosis and the scarring over the entrance to the lungs is connected - it seems too random for them to be not related, BUT, they don't know of any pathology that would act like this... 
We've had 3 smart doctors say that the cricoid-tracheal resection would really 'fix' the trachea situation, and I guess that bodes well, but from the cheap seats I don't understand exactly how it could 'fix' something where they don't understand the actual cause.  What if they do the surgery and it still comes back?

We'll cross these bridges as they come.

While the situation is reasonably complex, and at least mildly frustrating, please don't think that we're spending our moments wringing our hands and worried about it.  Not the case!  We're enjoying summer with its change of pace, some exercise, camps for the kiddos, a Canada vacation on the horizon...  Life is good!  We're blessed with wonderfully caring family and friends, colleagues and students.  We're in a good place, we're just looking forward to getting past this one teensy thing!

All for now, keep us in your thoughts and prayers Tuesday, 1:00pm Mountain Time!

Steve (and Karee and the kiddos too)