A gentle doctor

My prayers were answered yesterday. Dr. S, Elijah's ENT doctor, was very gentle. After chatting with us for a few minutes, he said what I expected him to say. We need to get Elijah in for a bronchoscopy-laryngoscopy before his open heart surgery. If there is something serious going on with his airway, we will need to know about it before then. I am doing my best not to think too far ahead.

I envision the next four months to be a gigantic pyramid holding many steps. Climbing the steps is not going to be easy, or fun, but most definitely necessary. And we will have to take the steps one at a time, and try not to worry about how out of breath we will be in the upper quadrant.

Of course there can't be an appointment without an Elijah Funny, right? We were chatting with Dr. S and he asked who E's cardiologist and primary docs were. We told him their names and he gushed about both of them. He said, "Elijah is in THE BEST hands, honestly. You just cannot beat those two doctors. Not possible." We agreed with him and told him how much we love them both. Then Dr. S said jokingly, "Now, Elijah's ENT doctor on the other haaaand..." And right on cue, without missing a beat and as if he totally got the joke but didn't really think it was funny, Elijah let out this HAhahahaha super fakey laugh. It was great.

The final word from Dr. S was that he is concerned. Elijah's tendency to get severe croup post-extubation is a serious situation. But, like Dr. S said, he is in good hands. The best. We are taking the necessary steps to keep our boy safe and that is all we can do. We have an appointment with Dr. K, Elijah's pulmonologist, in a few weeks, so we will get his thoughts, as well. Add Dr. K to that list of the absolute best doctors, by the way.

I have a hunch about all of this. I don't feel like Dr. S will find anything serious in Elijah's airway. I feel like it will be slightly narrowed, possibly due to scar tissue from all of his intubations, but I don't feel like it will require intervention at this point. When Elijah gets out of breath, he doesn't wheeze or struggle beyond what he should. He never sounds croupy unless he is sick or unless he has been intubated. That is a very good sign.

His bronchoscopy-laryngoscopy is scheduled for May 2nd. So, within the next month or so we should have a better handle on the croup worries surrounding Elijah's upcoming surgery.

One step at a time!