All Looks Good, but...

Maybe we should not consider this a bump in the road. A small pothole, possibly.

To start, it is good to be home. Daddy and Colin made the early AM trip from Cincinnati to Louisville, over to St. Louis and onto Dallas. Again, it is good to be home.

Following the 30 minute procedure yesterday, according to Dr. Cotton, "all looks good; not great, but looks good." What was found in the bronchoscopy was all seems to be going well in his recovery process. The only concern that was brought up was the amount of swelling at the surgery site. Considering Colin's history with Eosinophilic Esophagitis(E.E.) and the extensive surgery that was done only three weeks ago, we still consider this progress in the journey.

E.E. is "an inflammatory condition in which the wall of the esophagus becomes filled with large numbers of eosinophils" (courtesy http://www.medicinenet.com/eosinophilic_esophagitis/article.htm)

Colin was less than willing to go under anesthesia by mask. Remember that trach? Yes, it did make anesthesia time a bit easier. With the help of a very experienced anesthesia team, with Daddy's help, Colin fought as usual during the process. Within 30 seconds, Colin was comfortably asleep.

Less than 1/2 hour later, we were given the news by Dr. Cotton that the swelling that was seen in last week's bronchoscopy was still there without much downgrade. The airway opening is still the same size, but just swollen. Dr. Cotton requested that we were good to be released to go back to Texas, but he said it would be necessary to go back within two weeks for another bronchoscopy. We believe that the routine every two week visits will be the norm until the swelling shows signs of improvement. In meeting with the ENT staff in post-op, we gained better understanding that children who have the LTP surgery, that have E.E., take a little bit more time to heal than those that do not have E.E.

In typical Colin fashion, in the PACU, as he was waking up from the procedure, Colin asked, "are we back in Texas?" When Daddy told him we were still in Cincinnati and everything was fine, Colin kindly asked, "are we going home...today?" With that type of ammunition, Daddy made sure we were on our way out of there.

Again, we want to thank you for your continued thoughts, well-wishes, and prayers. These continue to carry us through each day and every little bump in the road. Keep an eye out tomorrow for an update on Colin's visit back to the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati with a special delivery from the Pre-K Rockenbaugh class.

With Love,
Dan & Nicole