Haden went into surgery on Monday May 7th.
After being put on general anesthesia, Haden's throat was scoped and they found that he indeed needed supraglottoplasty (which involves cutting the tissue of the aryepiglottic-above the vocal cords- opening the airway). The doctors also found evidence in the throat tissue of gastroesophageal reflux. Haden also had ear tubes put in.
Dr. Messner came and spoke to us when the surgery was over. She said that the cuts this time were "harder and deeper" than before. She suspected that Haden would have a rougher recovery than in December. We asked her what caused the laryngomalacia to come back and she said that Haden's throat tissue is just soft, while breathing that soft tissue is being pulled (approx. 30 times each minute) until it stretched enough to cause stridor and make breathing difficult once again. She also said Haden's reflux irritates the throat tissue making it more suspectable to being soft. Unfortunately at the end of our conversation she mentioned that until the swelling goes down and Haden we will not know if he will again need surgery a few months later.
John and I were soon called into the recovery area to see Haden. He was still struggling through a breathing treatment and was in great discomfort and pain. The breathing became less labored and soon we were taken into our very tiny short term stay room. Haden struggled in not wanting to taking liquids and napping (as it was a shared room until late at night.) Finally about supper time, Haden took 3 bottles and fell asleep. When the room cleared out about 10pm - the nurse allowed me to lie down to sleep with Haden. He and I were up every few hours with pain ... but his O2 stats stayed constantly between 97-100 so we were released to come home.
After getting home Haden has continued to heal. He slowly has been getting his full appetite back. Haden is getting his full energy back as he played with Grandma and Memaw. He is yet again trying to keep up with his big brother.
There is still stridor in his breathing, although much quieter. And he continues to be on medicine for reflux. Yet we wait ... hoping what we currently hear is still swelling from surgery, but secretly preparing ourselves for yet another -tougher- round of surgery, if it should come to that again.
To end on a positive note
Here's a video of Haden joining Wyatt in the sprinkler on Wednesday afternoon.
Our joyful baby has not been brought down one bit by his breathing nor hearing adventures.
his JOY always makes me grateful of the Lord
