Hannah comes through bronchoscopy fine

The schedule changed. We learned about 7:30 this morning that Hannah could get her bronchoscopy done earlier than planned, which was good for us, but it meant there wasn't enough time for Janet to get back to the hospital. (She went home last night to try to finally get a little rest and take care of her mother.)

Hannah went in with Dr. John Rogers for her bronchoscopy about 8:30. Dr. Rogers came out and talked with me about 9:30 to show me pictures from deep inside Hannah's lungs (we'll probably post some later, after we get a chance to scan). The gist: she has a lot of saliva down in her lungs, not just mucus.

This is good news/bad news. Although no doubt the saliva carries germs down, the main effect seems to be irritation of the lung membranes (they're designed for mucus, not saliva). Dr. Rogers suctioned out as much as possible, and we can treat it by adding a medication along with the scopolamine patch to reduce her saliva output more and by giving her the Vital-Stim treatment we're already planning to help her learn to protect her airway.

As Dr. Rogers said, by this afternoon she could have a lungful of saliva again, because she's not protecting her airway, but we know what direction to go.

We're also still seeing some laryngomalacia in the form of some floppiness to her airway, but my impression is that it isn't as bad as it was, so she may be growing out of it. On balance, it's a very minor impact on what's happening with her now.

Hannah will go down later for her VUCG (or is it VCUG?), after she has fully awakened from her anesthetic. I'll post another update then.