For the first time…

(Our amazing ENT & Arabella. He was also Aidan’s doctor. Pretty cool!)

For the first time, I allowed myself to image my life & Arabella without a trach. Let’s just say it was a tear fest! Arabella had her appointment with Dr. Singer today. Obviously, it was GREAT news! His exact words were, “It’s time.” Don’t get too excited! What he meant by that is it’s time to take the 1st big step. He wants to do a bronchoscopy. I shall define that for ya!

A bronchoscopy is a procedure during which your doctor passes a thin, flexible tube called a bronchoscope through your nose (or sometimes your mouth), down your throat, and into your airways. The tube has a light and a camera at the tip of it so that he can see what’s going on in there. She will be put under anesthesia. The purpose is to see if her vocal cords are moving. Aidan had 2 done before the results were positive.

Now, there is a catch. Arabella has reflux and until the reflux is 100% under control he WILL NOT remove the trach. We have to take her to a Gastroenterologist (GI doctor) to sort out her reflux and medication problem and when we have the ok from the GI doctor, we will schedule her bronchoscopy! Lucky for us we know a great GI doctor since she just recently performed surgery on Aidan’s tummy!

Now it’s time for some mushy feelings because I don’t ever want to forget all that I have to be grateful for. I haven’t allowed myself to think about Arabella getting the trach out because I didn’t want to be disappointed so I just never allowed myself to go there, until today. With Aidan I went into every single appointment with high hopes and great expectations. I always left crying because the results were never what I expected. I didn’t let myself expect anything with Arabella. You can imagine my utter shock and surprise when Dr. Singer said he wants to do a bronchoscopy. I was shaking like crazy and choking back tears. I even felt a little light headed! I am soooooo grateful for how blessed we have been.