Forward Progress Plus Hard Realities

Yesterday was an exhausting day, but at least Mike and I had a lot of time together—something we certainly don't take for granted. We traveled up north of Indianapolis for two appointments. The first was with our general practitioner for two purposes: 1. To lay a foundation for where Mike is at now and to inform future care. 2. To ask them to sign paperwork for Mike's disability claim and my FML. The good news is it seems like they are willing to sign all of this. The bad news is that they didn't have all the medical records they needed nor the time to go through everything. So we have to go back next week. 

The second appointment was with his ENT surgeon to check up on his cartilage surgery at the front of his throat and scope his throat to see how his vocal cords are doing. The cartilage in the front of his throat is healing nicely. The over 2 inch wide titanium plate she put in to hold everything together is quite substantial and noticeable when Mike moves his head around but will most likely be permanent. He'll get used to it. (Easy for me to say!) 

Next she got ready to scope his throat, and Mike was recalling how terribly uncomfortable this procedure is. (A small flexible tube with a tiny camera on the end is shoved up one nostril and wriggled through and down the throat.) The ENT then told him that she had numbing drops for his nose, at which point, we wondered why he wasn't given those before. Oh well! I watched the screen as she went down his throat and had him take some breaths and make some sounds. Then she gave us the news that we kind of already knew but didn't really want to hear—his left vocal cord still isn't moving. 

We knew that could well be the case because his voice really has only improved minimally if at all. She said that the cartilage she repositioned and attached to the vocal cord is holding, so that is good. But that is only half of what the vocal cord needs. It also needs the nerve that runs from the brain, down around the heart, and back up the throat to the vocal cord to work too. We knew it was probably crushed with all the damage to his throat, and this confirms that it was. We don't know the extent of the damage though, because that would be a very invasive surgery. Right now the left vocal cord is in a decent position, but over time it's possible that it will sag and move even further from the right vocal cord, causing his voice to worsen. 

So what now? We mostly wait. Nerves can take up to a year to heal. Mike is also going to start speech therapy with a specialist in vocal cord injuries. The ENT doesn't know that it will make a huge difference, but it might help some. There is still hope. Are we discouraged? Sure, we are. There aren't any other options for us to pursue at this point. It's harder for Mike to be heard and understood, and he is grieving not being able to sing. We are all grieving. But our hope is in God. As we study through 1 Peter with our church, we are reminded each week that we are to live for and put our hope in the future that God promises, that we are "born again to a living hope," and that we are ransomed by Christ so that our faith and hope are in God. We have so much to be thankful for each day, and that is what we try to focus on. We are surrounded by family and friends who continue to love, pray for, and support us. God is so good! Thank you, all of you, for your prayers.

Please pray that: