I called Sam’s ENT to find out when we were going to schedule his bronchoscopy, the test they decided to do instead of the swallow study, to find out if his last surgery worked or not. I figured since I had already talked to Sam’s ENT previously, he would just say to go ahead and schedule the bronchoscopy. I was wrong. He wanted to see us in the clinic first. What?! Usually, during cold and flu season, Sam’s docs try to keep us out of their offices. You see, I’ve known this doctor for over two years now. He doesn’t give bad news over the phone. What bad news could he give us though? It didn’t make sense to me. My mind was racing on why he wanted us to come to the clinic.

I didn’t make up too much in my head. Here’s where my thoughts went. They would do a bronchcoscopy and if the surgery didn’t work, Sam’s ENT would send us to Cincinnati. I’m sure you’re wondering why in the world I would think that. A little history…

When Sam was first diagnosed with a Type II Laryngeal Cleft, the day after he had his third code, his ENT told us if Sam was a Type III or IV, he wouldn’t touch him and would send us to Cincinnati, the pediatric airway hospital of the world. We now know Sam’s cleft is a severe Type II, very close to Type III. They range from a I to a IV, a type IV being the worst case scenario. Kids with a Type IV don’t generally make it. If any of that makes sense, that’s why I made up he might send us to Cincinnati, which if I thought a lot about it, felt very overwhelming. I couldn’t think of any other bad news he might give us. I wasn’t even sure he was gong to give us bad news. I was only assuming.

I know they say, never assume, but I have to say, in this situation, I’m glad I did.

We waited about a month from the time we scheduled the appointment to the day of. Like Dr. Sues says, the Waiting Place is “a most useless place”. For the most part, I was able to stay out of the Waiting Place.

Appointment day…

We learned, Sam’s ENT did have us come in because he was going to deliver, what he thought, was bad news. He told us they would do another bronchcoscopy to see if Sam’s surgery worked. If it didn’t work, they would do the surgery again. Whew. I told him what I had made up in my head. He laughed and said he could send us there if we wanted. Nope! I know, without a doubt, our ENT has Sam’s best interest in mind, and if he did not feel qualified, he wouldn’t have done the surgery. I’ve been told by more than one person, and it’s evident, he holds a special place in his heart for Sam. Every time we see him, he reminds me how sick Sam was. He is always amazed at how well Sam is doing now.

His other bad news was that it will be highly unlikely Sam will be decanulated this year because of all of his aspirating episodes. In other words, it’s not likely Sam will get his trach out until next year. Also, not a big shocker for us. We had already suspected that was going to be the case, knowing he has been aspirating a lot. Again, I’m glad I assumed, better yet, mentally prepared myself for this appointment.

In the meantime, like I mentioned in my previous post, Sam has been having some new GI (tummy) issues. Next Monday, Sam will have a bronchcoscopy with two ENT surgeons with the possibility of surgery, and now they have also added an upper endoscopy with a GI doctor, to hopefully be able to answer questions on Sam’s GI stuff.

Pray for Sam on Monday. The older he gets, the more aware he becomes. He will be put under for the thirty somethingth time and that doesn’t mean it gets easier for him or us. Pray the last surgery worked and they will not have to do it again. Pray we will get easy, fixable answers to his GI issues.

This kid sure likes to keep a lot of really smart, highly educated people, and his family guessing. He might be adding some gray hairs, but he is definitely worth it.