Mom got in to see the Pulmonary Dynamic Duo again today. After some more cauterizin’ and dilatin’ and rootin’ around, Dr. J came out to say that everything looked good. Cranked open the airway a bit more to 70% capacity. Everything healing well from last procedure. Still looking forward to possible decanulation on the 9th, if we can get the tremors out of her vocal cords.
Great! Sez I. So why the hell can’t she breathe with the cap on her trach?
The good doctor admitted that this puzzled him. There was no occlusion that he could see. However, he noticed that her trach was installed a bit off-center (I had noticed this is well. I credit the jerkwad ENT). As a result, the canula inside kept rotating out of alignment. The fenestration at the top of it would end up against her trachea wall instead of pointing up and out her airway. Hmm.
Once she woke up a bit, we asked her to cap the trach and see what would happen. She could breathe in from her nose just fine. She couldn’t breathe out. Almost total blockage. Dr. J mused that perhaps the damaged area’s walls were collapsing a bit more than he thought. I gave him a flat stare. He talked again about the rotation. To demonstrate, he pulled the right side of the flange a good half inch up from where it normally sits. I expected Mom to go into coughing spasms at this maneuver, but she didn’t. So I asked her to put her finger over the trach while he held it and try breathing again.
She could inhale and exhale just fine.
This is GREAT news. This means that instead of her trachea deteriorating, which I had seriously feared, the problem now is that the plastic tube in her throat that serves as a diverted airway is actually blocking her normal airway. Oh, sweet irony!
We made some jokes about duct-taping the flange into the necessary position, but her skin is irritated enough without adding industrial adhesives to the mix. Oh well.
You know what I think? I think all the granulated tissue that had been under her larynx was holding the trach in position so she could breathe around it. Now that it’s been removed, it’s flopping over. That is my non-medical opinion. I fart in the ENT’s general direction. Although Dr. J is going to contact him to see if Mom would be a good candidate for having Botox injected into her larynx. The tremors are still really bad, and they’re in the vocal cords. Dr. J is hesitant about removing the trach until he’s sure that her larynx won’t slam shut from the tremors. Mom’s voice box may get a face lift, ha ha.
Meanwhile, we’ll see her neurologist on Thursday, and we’ll beg him for something to control the tremors until we can figure out what’s causing them. If we can get them settled, I really think she might have this devil device out of her throat in 2 weeks. I am daring to hope, which is pretty darned noteworthy.
In other good news, I seem to have dodged the Sperm Bullet. It’s a relief, although a part of my subconscious had started nesting. I think I could handle a Dot to go with Yakko and Wakko, but the timing would be wretched. Plus, Pokermon is QUITE sure that our current level of pitter-patter is sufficient; he’s ready to leave the 0-2 years phase behind. There are good reasons why it takes 2 people to make kids — it takes 2 people to keep up with ‘em. So since he’s not on board, I am content with my awesome pair.
Wakko just moved to his own bed 2 weeks ago. Pokermon and I have the bed all to ourselves for the first time in over 5 years. I have to admit it’s luxurious.
It means though, that it’s time to explore the vasectomy option. Though Lord knows, I’m a little skittish about elective surgery after this last year! :-p
