Hi everyone - I just wanted to provide an update on Ross. Per my previous post, Ross was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday 10/4 for the EndoVac procedure with Dr. McCarty. We didn’t know how long the procedure would take to work or if it would work. 

Unfortunately, after a week and Dr. McCarty exploring Ross’s esophageal anastomosis (connection point where his esophagus now meets his small intestine and where the leak is present), the doctors had to have an honest conversation with us. Apparently the tissue in that area is extremely damaged due to surgery and there are countless staples present from when Dr. Bartlett originally removed Ross’s stomach and tried to connect the two organs during surgery back in May.  The doctors said that even if we kept at this procedure and did an infinite number of sponge exchanges, there would only be a 25-30% eventual success rate. This was so disappointing to hear, but at the same time Ross was incredibly uncomfortable. For the entire week Ross had the tube in, he was in constant pain and he was gagging and vomiting all the time due to the sponge being in his esophagus and his body’s natural reaction to try to rid itself of it. Ross also has a bad gag reflex and the thick, rigid tube running down the back of his throat was causing extreme discomfort 24/7. He barely slept this past week and said it felt like he was in a torture chamber. 

We made the decision pretty quickly to have the tube removed as soon as possible. Ross ended up coming home on Wednesday this week and has been slowly recovering from his brutal hospital stay. Needless to say, we are very discouraged because this was kind of our last option on paper right now. However, we are going to take some time to recover, and figure out what to do next. Ross is still steadfast in his belief that we will get this leak fixed and beat his cancer diagnosis for good! Thank you all for reading this and your continued efforts in supporting Ross and our family. 

We love you all so much!

Kim