It’s been quite a couple months. In August, Tina took Aria
to Jewish National Hospital in Denver. After lots of tests and meeting with
doctors and several procedures, Aria was diagnosed with asthma,
gastroesophageal reflux disease, equivocal laryngeal cleft type 1, and chronic
rhinitis.
Rhinitis is a medical term for irritation and inflammation
of the mucous membrane inside the nose.
Gastroesophageal
reflux disease (GERD), gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), gastric reflux
disease, or acid reflux disease is a chronic symptom of mucosal damage
caused by stomach acid coming up from the stomach
into the esophagus.
A laryngeal cleft or laryngotracheoesophageal cleft is a
rare congenital
abnormality in the posterior laryngo-tracheal wall. It occurs in approximately 1 in
10,000 to 20,000 births. It means there is a gap between the oesophagus
and trachea, which allows food or fluid to pass into the airway.
The first two we knew about but the cleft was a surprise and
might be causing some of the fat in her lungs but we’re doing the stomach
surgery first and monitor her condition afterwards and if necessary they’ll fix
the cleft but it’s high enough that it might not be an issue. We’ll see.
On Oct 8th, Aria will be having a fundoplication, where the gastric
fundus (upper part) of the stomach
is wrapped, or plicated, around the lower end of the esophagus
and stitched in place, reinforcing the closing function of the lower esophageal sphincter.
Whenever the stomach contracts, it also closes off the
esophagus instead of squeezing stomach acids into it. This prevents the reflux
of gastric
acid (in GERD).
We also had another CT scan recently and it’s showing that
Aria’s Chiari is affecting her again with little fluid flow between her spine
and her brain which is causing more and more headaches and could lead to other
problems also.
We are planning on her having another brain surgery before
the end of the year to help release the pressure again. We thought it was a
“one and done” thing but the new doctor says that he’s been known to do four or
five on children as they continue to grow through childhood. I hope it’s not
that many and we’ll let you know when her brain surgery is going to happen but
my guess would be around Thanksgiving or Christmas break to try and minimize
how much school she misses. She’s already missed a lot so far.
