Surgery...... This should cover it all

I figured since I have been asked so many times about surgery I should just write it all down here and reference everyone to this. So here are more details than you will ever want to know about Carter's surgery coming up next Monday September 17th. 

What is it?

He will be having a Lareyngotracheal reconstruction surgery or easier said airway reconstruction. The surgery it self will take anywhere from 4-6 hours. The surgeon will make an incision in his right rib and find "the best looking" piece of cartlidge and remove it  He will graft it to shape and use that to help create a new airway. He will them make a smiley face incision across his neck (too much detail?) and split his current airway open. He will then use the grafted cartlidge and merge it to his current airway creating a brand spankin' new one. After this main surgery he will have three more smaller ones over the next 2.5 months to finish it off. The three other ones should be more just repair scar tissue, airway dilation, and the final one will include tonsils and adenoids. 

Why? 

Nobody is really sure what brought us to this point. Could be simply because he was born at 25 weeks. Could be because he was incubated for so long. Could be, but not likely genetics. Who knows, but it has to be done. Why? The most exciting for us is getting his dang trach out (after the 4th and final surgery) Currently his airway is 93% percent closed due to scar tissue build up. Leaving him with an airway the size of a coffee straw to breath and swallow out of. Carter gets about 99% of his nutrition through a feeding tube and with time as his airway heals he should be able to eat more food by mouth. Because of his trach he is not able to produce any sound (trach is placed below the vocal chords making it so no noise is produced) so again with time he will be able to make noise and learn how to speak. I don't even have to say how excited I am to hear his voice. By the time surgeries are finished he will be almost two and that is far too long to wait to hear your babies voice if you ask me. He also has a paralyzed vocal chord and the hope is that with a new expanded airway his right vocal chord will be able to make up what the left cant do. There are SO many other benefits to this surgery as far as developmental and what not, but those are the main ones.

Recovery?
We are not exactly sure what recovery will be like. We do know that they will place 1-2 drain tubes in his chest to get rid of all the fluid that will build up in his lungs. Also there will be a drain tube placed in his neck as well. They said to plan on at least a week stay for the first surgery and hopefully only 1-3 days for the other three.

If there is anything else I can't think of it right now. As always we would love prayers for our little man (and us we are going a little crazy thinking about it).

Thank You Thank You!!!!!