Aria - Denver outcome & future surgeries

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.