Round Seven

Crewe's laryngoscopy and sclerotherapy that were planned for December finally happened today. What can sometimes be a stressful experience ending up being quite enjoyable. Crewe was a total trooper and did great. We also got to catch up with many of our friends at the hospital. I seriously felt like I was traveling with a celebrity because nurse after nurse and doctor after doctor tracked us down to see how the little guy was doing. It's fun to be known as Crewe's parents.

The purpose of the laryngoscopy was to look at the airway and see how it has changed and what might be keeping Crewe from making sounds. The pictures showed that 1) his vocal cords are normal (good news), 2) he has some big cysts around his epiglottis (not good), and 3) some granulation tissue has developed in his trachea where the trach tube rubs against it (common, but not good). So... the doctor lasered the largest cysts around the epiglotis and removed the granulation tissue. The hope is that by removing some of the cysts and granulation tissue enough space will be made for air to pass through so he can make sounds. If it worked, we will start hearing sounds in about two weeks.

The sclerotherapy session showed that not many new cysts have appeared (good) and that the bulk of what remains is soft tissue (not so good because there is no effective treatment for soft tissue). The doctors sclerosed all of the remaining cysts that were large enough to fit their smallest needles. The next step is to do an ultrasound of Crewe's face and neck in 6 weeks to see if further sclerotherapy is recommended.