I am sorry for taking so long to update on surgery, there is a lot of moving parts and coordination. Since my last update, we have met with one of Drew’s surgeons, she had had a swallow study done to see if she aspirates and then we met with some of the heart side of the surgical team. Like I said earlier, this is an all comprehensive team. So what it’s called is the Vascular ring and airway team. So it’s compromised of many doctors.  Next week, Drew and I will fly to Boston where we will meet my mom and Drew will be admitted for 5 days of antibiotics and tests before she goes into surgery. My mom will leave after the antibiotics are finished and then Josh will come out and meet us for surgery. Drew will be undergoing surgery on June 3rd. Like I said, it will be a team effort and they don’t leave “until we are high fiving” because they feel this is going to be as successful as possible. Surgery will be roughly 4 hours. Maybe more, maybe less. Drew may go to the ICU, she may go to the regular floor, she may have a chest tube. There are so many things about this surgery that are “game time decisions”. Drew will be having what is called a Tracheopexy. They will be taking the back of her trachea and tacking it to he spine with sutures to obtain the most optimal shape for airway clearance. They will be moving her esophagus over to create space for her trachea and they will be moving her aortic arch out of the way. That may include rolling it out of the way or also performing an aortopexy which is where they take her aorta and tack it to her chest wall. It all depends on what they see live in her trachea when they are moving the structures around. The goal of this surgery is to open her airway and remove the “floppiness” as well as move/remove the compression on her trachea from the other structures in order to open up her airway and optimize airway clearance.  Drew will then be in the hospital until it is safe for her to fly home (shooting for mid June). Kids that are Drew’s age tolerate this surgery well and we know that just like her first surgery she will absolutely rock it. This kid has been through so much, and these next couple weeks are going to be so hard. But we will take it day by day and we will pray through it and smile through it. We appreciate all the love and prayers. They are needed. 

People have asked how they can help and we really appreciate that, but really any love you can send to Drew like a happy video or a note I can read to her, or even just a picture. She thrives off of love and support. 

Much love 🤟🏼