Thaddeus Update 53

Today is the day! Surgery at 7:30! No wait, surgery at 8:00! No, wait, surgery at, well sometime. Our surgeon had an emergency surgery to perform at 5:50 this morning and we are still waiting for him to get done with that one so he can get ready for us. It is now almost 10:00 and we are waiting. Of course since most everything else that Thaddeus has had done was postponed at least once before it was done, this should come as no surprise. In the mean time I do have a few other things to let you know.

Last time I let you know that they had decided that the tonsils and adenoids didn't have to come out. However, they did decide to have a follow up with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor. He took a camera and took a look at Thaddeus's vocal folds just to make sure they were not causing any restriction or difficulty in breathing. They are not. However, the ENT doctor was surprised to see some movement in the previously paralyzed vocal fold! You may remember that at the last heart surgery they cut the nerve that controls that. The fact that there is some movement now means the never may be regrowing. As of now, the movement is not 100% but hopefully may continue to improve. So that was good news. Of course Dede did find out yesterday that there is a small chance that they could hit that nerve again this time around. However, she was assured that this is pretty unlikely. In fact it is more likely that they will hit nerves that allow him to control the diaphragm. If this happens he will have trouble breathing but Dede was told that this is not "life threatening." Not sure how having trouble breathing while your O2 levels are already low is not a big deal, but we haven't been able to ask about that yet. Dede also agreed to allow the hospital to do a research study. They do a lot of those at CHW. The study is to track if there is any kidney damage during the surgery. This was also a new one for us. We had not previously heard that there was any danger to the liver during the procedure.

Oh! They just came and took him to prep him for surgery. Apparently the longest part of this surgery is cutting through the scar tissue and the sternum and making sure not to hit the heart. Each time they go in it is more difficult due to the scaring. Also his sternum is hard now, unlike the first time around. They are going to knock him out now and then spend the bulk of the time getting in, after that it is apparently fairly quick. I've got move rooms now so I will send more later.