Deflated

    The surgery at the end of August to treat the tracheal stenosis (narrowing of his airway) did not go like we expected and has been very difficult to recover from.   His airway has healed pretty well, but his lungs however have not.  He can't even do the simplest of tasks without his oxygen levels dropping into unsafe levels.  Before he was on oxygen only at night, now it's his constant companion. Having to work so hard just to be able to breath is tough on his body and he's exhausted.

      His ENT and Primary care doctor have said that they think the lower lobes of his lungs have probably collapsed.   It's a complication that apparently can happen from anesthesia.   The fact that his lungs battled pneumonia earlier this year probably made them weak and more susceptible to this complication.  We are waiting to get into yet another specialist to try and figure out a solution.

     Yet another specialist now treating Chris is an ophthalmologist.   A particularly tough cough to try and clear his lungs has lead to another complication.   It resulted in palsy (paralysis) of the 6th cranial nerve.   This makes it so that one of his eye's can't move like normal and gives him double vision as well as a debilitating unrelenting headache.   There are a few possibilities.   It could have caused a mini-stroke to the nerve, if that's the case there isn't much they can do but wait for it to heal, hopefully within 2-3 months.  He's requested a CT to try and rule out an aneurysm.  He also wants him to do another test to determine if the coughing might have caused a bleed in his pituitary gland.

      Thanks to our Primary Care Doctor and some strong antibiotics, the infection in both of his legs from being in the hospital is finally starting to heal.   Having low oxygen levels has made it extra challenging but it's nice to be least see progress somewhere.

     So like his lungs, and the poor ducky to the right we fill a bit deflated and like we are just dragging along.    With at least a dozen appointments, tests and procedures scheduled in the coming weeks, and likely more to come we'll just do our best to survive.  Having a rare brain tumor with accompanying complications from surgeries is no fun!