Airway Appointment

Mila had her 2nd follow up appointment at the airway clinic at CHP today. The gel injection that they used to temporarily fix her laryngeal cleft was a temporary fix. About 50% of kids only need this fix and don't need the bigger surgery, while the other 50% go on to need the surgery. So we had been anticipating today for quite some time hoping and praying she wouldn't need this surgery. It's a big surgery and we obviously just didn't want to see her go through that. So today, we got GOOD NEWS! 

They put the camera down Mila's nose to get a look at her swallows and her swallows looked great! (Which by the way, Mila is the best kid ever to have this procedure done, the doctor said so himself and even wanted to video tape Mila and show all the other kids how they should behave so well! bahahah She barely flinches when they put that camera down her nose!) Anyways, the doctor said most of the time, being this far out from the surgery Mila had in December, if we were going to see a problem that indicated a need for surgery, we'd likely be seeing it now. AND WE AREN'T! 

Mila still sometimes chokes on really thin liquids like juice and medicine (of course she didn't today when they had the camera down there), so they want us to go back in July for a swallow study. If she shows any aspirations or being at risk for aspirations, it's likely that it is more of a neurological issue or low muscle tone issue associated with Down Syndrome, and not the cleft! So even hearing that would be good news because most of the time kids outgrow aspiration when it's due to one of those two issues! Of course we're hoping she's not aspirating AT ALL-that'd be the best news, but we definitely don't want the aspiration being caused by the cleft, because that would indicate surgery. So today was all good news, we'll go back for hopefully one last check in July and if all looks good then we'll know the laryngeal cleft will likely never cause problems again! 

I left with such a big weight being taken off my shoulders! Even thinking about another possible surgery made my tummy hurt for Mila! I have a new respect for parents of kiddos who face lives full of surgeries with no end in sight! Praising God today for our good news! 

And because you're still here and you read all that (didn't you? if you didn't you should probably go back up and read it or else you'll feel guilty) here is a super cute video of Mila. She has me wrapped around her finger! All she has to do is look at me and smile and shoot those hands straight up and I pick her up every single time (even though most of the time I just put her down 30 seconds earlier LOL)! Sister is making up for lost time, I think! And I think her puppy dog kisses are just the best! I remember Zoya used to do the same!