Pulmonary Questions

Lexi has landed herself in the hospital with a respiratory infection called HMV, which is very similar to the RSV she got two years ago when she ended up very, very sick. However, with her bigger size and better cough ability, she seems to be fighting this one better. She is just requiring a little oxygen and some extra fluids through an IV.

The doctor thinks she may have had the start to this on Monday and that in combination with anesthesia caused her to have an even weaker immunity system. That resulted in pneumonia and this HMV attacking her lungs. When she started breathing weird Thursday night and I rushed her to the ER, and it was good that we got her in so early to get on top of this, as she seems to be hanging in there, even though her lungs still sound very bad.

This also sped up our need to meet with a Pulmonary (lung) specialist. Since Lexi gets pneumonia 3-4 times a cold season, and the average person should get pneumonia once for every ten years of life, the need to find an underlying cause for her respiratory issues became apparent. The doctors are looking at several scenarios, including a weakened stomach muscle from all her surgeries that gives her a weaker cough, an immune deficiency disease (which all tests so far have come back negative), and Tracheomalacia. The last one is the one the doctors think, but will need to confirm with a bronchoscopy (camera down her throat). If she does have Tracheomalacia, that means her trachea was not properly developed and is more floppy material than the stiff material with which most are constructed. That means when she tries to cough, it collapses and doesn't let the mucus out of her lungs, causing more respiratory issues. So, as soon as she is healthy enough, we will be performing tests to determine 100% what is going on. From there, we will figure out the best game plan to proactively treat colds and try to prevent hospital visits.

For now, the only additional treatment she is getting is a vest treatment, where they put her in a vest and violently shake her for 20 minutes. She is not a fan, but it seems to be helping break up the mucus and helping her get more out. As long as we are avoiding getting intubated, we are fine to have her suffer through any annoying treatment!

Ear Surprise

Lexi had surgery on Monday to put tubes in both her ears after several looks revealed water and a couple ear infections. Surgery went okay, but we got some surprising news when the doctor came back. He informed us that he placed a tube in her left ear as planned, but when he tried to place one in her right ear, there actually was already a hole there.

We were stunned, so didn't ask a lot of questions, but did get enough asked that we know this is something that developed as

her ear grew (as opposed to an environmental influence) since she last had tubes a couple years ago. Just another birth defect. This could be affecting her hearing, which in turn could be affecting her speech. That's the only good news in this scenario. Therefore, in the next few months, we will run several more tests to determine the exact implications of this and determine the best possible treatment plan, which could involve surgery, hearing aids, and anything else necessary. Good news is that even if it does require surgery, it probably won't be until her teens.

So, for now, we will relish in the thought that she got through one more surgery fine and that the IPAD was the best invention for entertaining a 3 year old before and after surgery!