Tomorrow is the day - Luke's LTR

Luke is scheduled to have a single-stage laryngotracheal reconstruction tomorrow. Dr. H. will take out Luke's trach and graft a piece of his rib cartilage into his trachea. This should make it both larger and more stable. Luke will be on a ventilator and sedated for a week. Then next week he will go back into the OR and if everything looks good they will try to ween him off the vent and we will all hope he can breath on his own. We expect him to be in the PICU for a couple of weeks and then in a room for a couple more. But everything is just going to depend on how he does. If the graft doesn't work, then Dr. H. will have to do another surgery to retrach Luke. There is some concern with Luke's nose continuing to close back up and with Luke's airway being inflamed (maybe an overactive immune response), but this seems to be the only way he can get his trach out. Life has been really good for all of us lately, so hopefully this will be just one more positive step.