Cleveland Clinic Appointment

Bettyjo saw Dr. Alam at the Cleveland Clinic today, and he has scheduled surgery for February 28, 2008 @ 7:30am. The surgery will take up to ten (10) hours to complete. He will take a patch of skin from her left forearm, along with a vein for blood supply. He will remove the damaged section of esophagus, and form an esophagus from the patch. She will then have a skin graph on her forearm.

She had some pre-admission testing today, but will need to be at the Clinic on the 27th @ 9:40am for the remainder of her pre-admission testing.

She will be in the hospital for at least a week, and the estimated total recovery time is six (6) months.

Please pray for Dr. Alam, the surgery team, and most importantly for Bettyjo that this will be the last surgery/procedure for this condition, and that her healing will be complete. Pray for the girls and me as we juggle schedules, traveling, ect. and that we will all be patient and "wait upon the Lord"

Bettyjo Update

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. The last two weeks have gone by very slowly, waiting for some direction from the ENT. However, Bettyjo got a call this afternoon telling her that she does not have a bone infection, and that we have an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic on January 30th at 9:00am. We were told to reserve the whole day for testing. I am hopeful this means pre-admission testing, and not we'll see if we can help you testing. We will be going up the day before and spending the night so we are both fresh for the entire day.

Please pray that they will be able to help us, and that whatever they propose will work!

Thanks to all of you who have been keeping up with this blog, and if you can please leave us a comment to let us know you were here.

Bettyjo Update

Bettyjo got a call from the ENT today. It looks as if she will be going to the Cleveland Clinic for the reconstruction. Before it is set she will need to have an MRI (she had one done on 12-31) and a test to see if she still has the bone infection. If she still has the bone infection, she will need a series of IV antibiotics that will last 6 to 8 weeks. If not, hopefully she can get in right away to have the reconstruction surgery.

The reason she had the MRI was to find out why she is having so much pain between her shoulder blades. Hopefully it's just from the surgery in July, and not another disk going out.

Bettyjo Update

Bettyjo just came from her ENT. He has recommended total esophageal reconstruction. There is a doctor at The James (OSU Cancer Clinic) that does this type of surgery, but Dr. Willet is not sure he will agree to do it since Bettyjo is not a cancer patient. The other option would be the Cleveland Clinic.

Bettyjo Update - Setback

Tuesday the ENT told Bettyjo that she could begin swallowing her spit. She had her 19th treatment yesterday, and late last night she noticed that her shirt was all wet. It appears that the esophagus is not healed and the fistula that was formed earlier is still pushing material to the exterior of her neck. We went to the ER last night and was met by the ENT. He took a CT scan and it appeared that the fluid was tracking to outside of the neck and was not pooling in the neck, and we are to keep the track open until he consults with our regular ENT on Monday.

Needless to say we are all very stunned by this. The wound on the outside looked good, and she was tolerating the Hyperbaric Chamber well. We really..........just don't know what to think or feel. I hate to say this...but my faith is really shaken. I don't know what possible reason God could have for allowing this to continue. I can say with all my being, we have had enough.

Bettyjo Update

Bettyjo completed her 11th hyperbaric oxygen treatment today. The wound to outside of her neck is almost completely healed. Bettyjo said that she feels a tightness in her neck. We are hopeful that the mussel in her neck is closing the esophagus. She has 9 more treatments and then a swallow test.

Thank you to all those that have been taking her to OSU East for treatment.

Please pray that she will be healed and that she will be able to swallow something for Christmas.

Bettyjo Update

Bettyjo has gone for two hyperbaric treatments, and is completing her third as I type. The external wound seems to be healing nicely. The real question is, with the esophagus and the mussel attached to it. Unfortunately, we will not know what is going on inside until this round of treatment is done, and a swallow test is given. I have attached a couple of photos of the actual chamber Bettyjo is using.

Thank you all for your continued support in meals, rides, dollars and prayers. It has made a tremendous impact on our entire family.