Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Doctors have a concensus - finally

After seeing four different specialists at four different hospitals I think we finally have a plan of action for Fisher's nose injuries. All of the surgeons believe that Fisher's nose needs more work but the discrepancy has been what to do and when to do it. We went to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital today and met with an Otolaryngoly Surgeon and his plan matched up with the plan of the pediatric ENT we saw at East Tennessee Children's hospital for the most part and it is one that I feel comfortable with.
We will do nothing now as Fisher seems to be breathing ok and he is definitely growing and active as can be! We will take Fisher to the pediatric ENT at East Tennessee Children's Hospital 4 times a year to monitor his nose and then we will see the surgeon at Vanderbilt once a year. The hope is we can delay nose reconstruction surgery until he is closer to puberty so it can be his last operation. If we do nose reconstruction now we would have to redo it at least one time and possibly several times as he grows - so the longer we can wait the better.
If Fisher gets self conscious about his nose at any point then we can reassess the situation.
I think the highlight of our visit is when the doctor said "I had a similar case I did nasal reconstruction on recently." That stopped me in my tracks - we have never heard of anything similar from any of the doctors and hospitals Fisher has been to. The child the doctor was referring to was older than Fisher and was in some kind of accident that crushed his nose. Poor kid! But just hearing that this doctor has dealt with similar issues was reassuring.
In many ways, I am relieved. I am relieved to finally know that we have a plan and that many of the doctors are in agreement. However, I am not "happy." I hate having surgery looming over us - even if it is several years down the road. And I hate how I am paranoid that his breathing is getting worse or will get worse and I won't realize it. But I am hopeful that since we have a plan I can kind of forget about his nose for a while and just enjoy time with my amazing, crazy, wild, fun loving Super Fish!

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