Although for most people, it was a celebration of hearts with Valentine's Day this week, we were more concerned with a certain little girl's trachea that is close to our heart. On Monday, she had a bronchoscopy to check for abnormalities in her trachea that might be causing the multiple cases of pneumonia and hospitalizations she has had over the last several years. The procedure didn't take that long, and the results were that she has tracheomalacia. This is defined as a part of the trachea that is not as strong as it should be and therefore collapses and has a smaller opening than it should. During the procedure, the camera assessed that Lexi's was at about 50% of what it should be, making her case a moderate one.
After this diagnosis, we had to go in again on Wed for a CT scan to see if the tracheomalacia was just a weak trachea or a result of a bigger issue. Lexi had to be sedated again for this, but did a great job, and it wasn't that long of a procedure. Given Lexi has had CT scans before, we were expecting a normal scan, but unfortunately results showed that she does in fact have a vein going across her trachea, which is probably what is putting pressure on the trachea to make it collapse.
Normally this finding would result in immediate surgery to reroute the vein. However, Lexi's vein does not wrap around the trachea which is the typical case when this is happens. Instead, it goes across the front only. I guess we are glad in this instance that Lexi does not follow the norm, as this meant the doctor would like to continually follow her and see if we can do without surgery for this one. So, we will see how she grows with this and if her trachea gets stronger with time and isn't affected by the vein. If it does not, and she continues to have problems with respiratory, then we might have to resort to surgery. For now, we have drawn a pass on this, though.
So, now we get to develop a plan of action to try and help break up and move the mucus out of her lungs, since the collapsing of her trachea has prevented this and caused all the problems in the past. Our first order of business is to try and teach her a new method of coughing. Then, at the start of next flu season, we will introduce her to a medication that we hope will benefit here heading into the winter. So, we will continue with life as we have known it, but with some new information to try and avoid the hospitalizations and pneumonia!
The Carslake cousins, Aunt Alisa, and Grandma Phyllis came to visit this weekend. Lexi and Conner pretty much disappeared to the basement when they arrived, and we didn't see them for a long time! They loved being with the older kids. 
