One year ago

September 8, 2005 was such an exciting and terrifying day all at the same time. I was so excited to be having the resection done, but terrified too that we were going to be removing part of my airway. Dr. Krempl had never sugar coded anything for me. He was always straightforward with everything from my diagnosis to the probability of how successful any surgical intervention might be. I was so at peace with having this CTR done that it never crossed my mind that something could go wrong.

With mom and Dr. Krempl before going into surgery.

With Roxanne, one of our chaplains, still in the holding room.

There was no way that anyone could have ever known that my scar tissue was as long and as thick as it was. The other 7 surgeries that I'd been having were done with scopes

through my mouth. When Dr. Krempl opened me up and was actually able to see everything, my scar tissue was 1 1/2 inches long. When he removed that much of my airway, there was

not enough of my trachea left to sew back together. That's when he had to reconstruct everything using rib cartiledge. It must have been from a cadaver because I don't have any other scars to indicate that it came from me. So for the next 8 days, I laid in ICU on a ventilator. And apparently was a bit of a drama queen. I tried to crash several times and ended up with double pneumonia, a staph infection and growing pseudomonis. They even had my mom call in my dad and brother because they weren't sure if I was going to make it. I do have quite a few memories from that week. I remember my Aunt Pam laughing, Frankie (one of my night nurses) asking mom for cookies, having neuro checks done, trying to be weaned off the vent for extubation, trying to move to get someones attention ... just to name a few.

The next time I was awake, was September 16th.

One of my first memories is of Dr. Krempl coming by on rounds that next day after I had the trach placed and had woken up. I remember just crying and pointing to the trach and mouthing to him that I didn't like it and didn't want it. He told me that he knew I wouldn't like it but when the vent failed that I was on, he had no other choice. Then he told me that I had to have the trach for at least 90 days. I was not a happy camper. I was finally discharged on September 23rd with a PICC line and 2 weeks of home IV antibiotics.

It's still so hard for me to believe that I actually went through something that traumatic and came out on the other side doing as well as I am. It's completely a God thing. My little 4 hour surgery and 6 weeks off work turned into a MAJOR 8 hour surgery and 4 months off work. It was a wild ride but just look where I am now ... married, the stepmom of 2 and surgery free for almost a year with my next doctors appointment being in November. God is SOOO good!!!