25 Hours of Driving, 20 Minute Procedure = Good News

So those of you who thought we were crazy to drive straight through on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning to Cincinnati and drive back home the same day - you were right. Though the trip down was not too bad - other than the thunderstorms - the trip home as a different story. Oh well, live and learn.

So what did we learn from our marathon adventure? We learned that the last two stretching procedures Daniel underwent have helped and the Dr. was able to stretch his esophagus to 10 mm this time from 8 mm. It also appears that Daniel's esophagus has stayed open and that the top area of narrowing is gone. According to the Dr., the stricture (narrowing) appears to be more elasticly rather than a hard scarring which is a good thing since it usually does not tear as easily. The bad news is that since it appears to be more elasticly, it could narrow back down over the next two weeks. If it does, they may look to inject sternoids into the site to enable it to stay open. As you recall, the Dr. goal is/was to open Daniel's esophagus to 10 or 11 mm so we are technically there. We now just must hope and pray that his esophagus stays open.

The other good news we received was that the since the procedures are going well, it might not take as long as they originally thought. Given this, they want us to do the next two procedures in Cincinnati since the next couple weeks will determine how fast we move forward.

Daniel once again was a trooper and could not wait to get out of the hospital. Thankfully he slept a lot and had some fun with his air tube in the car....

Thanks again for reading and for caring. We will keep you posted as the next couple of weeks unfold.

All the best -