Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Doctor I need your advice

yesterday entailed another trip to the doctors this time for an examination of my stoma or hole where the trach is incerted to see how it was healing up after the surjury over a month ago. The visit was also to do a trach change which would be the first since the surjury. The doctor had mixed news about my stoma, she noticed it healed fairly well but It also showed signs that my body was rejecting the trach tube. She said since this tube is made out of a different material than the old one my body wasn't used to it yet and was fighting it. she went on to say that eventually my body will adjust and it will just become part of the body and no more rejection will occur, she assured me that this was quite normal and nothing to be alarmed about. Any time you put a foreign object in your body it tries to get rid of it until it realizes that the object isn't so bad. She also noticed some scar tissue called granulation tissue was growing around the trach and she decided to cauterize it with a substance known as silver nitrate. Silver nitrate kills the tissue very gently and eventually just falls off. It does sting a little but it is well worth it to get rid of the tissue which can make trach changes very difficult. After the cauterizing it was time for a trach change only one problem I didn't have my replacement trach! it turns out somehow the item got left at home so the doctor decided since they had no extra tubes to reschedule for a later date in this case April 14th. Not a big deal when it would've been nice to get it over with.

Next we addressed my swallowing issues. We told the doctor that we were eating puréed food that was basically a liquid texture. She acknowledged that there was a significant risks to eating but that was up to us to make the final decision she agreed that it was not reasonable to expect me to eat nothing for the rest of my life and she agreed to do a swallow study. In this case the swallow study was done by inserting a scope with a camera down my nose into my windpipe down to just above my vocal chords. She showed me that there were areas where the food after swallowing was pooling up when it should've been going down into the stomach. This gave me an idea of exactly how risky eating is which is significant but as long as I eat slow and take breaks between bites the risk would be significantly reduce just have to be very careful. the doctor completely ruled out anything other than extreme purée such as a smoothie or a cream soup with note chunks. That made me a little upset but at least I could eat something. I had hoped that I would be a lucky things a little more chunky such as spaghetti or macaroni and cheese but after seeing the video I realized that was not a viable option for me now have to make do with extremely puréed food. There is a risk but it's a risk I'm willing to take for my quality of life.

2 comments:

  1. Hey buddy,

    You are in my thoughts & prayers. I sure have missed chatting with you but im glad to keep updated through this blog. Puts me at ease.

    (((hugs)))

    Just remember you are my bestest friend forever. I love you as a best friend.

    God Bless,
    Salie

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  2. Hey, you stold my swallowing story lol. God bless you Mitch!

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