To all our beloved readers!

Thank you for your patience as it's been a couple of days since the last update.  I'm sure all of you have been wondering what's going on.  Well, here we go!

Rita and I met with Dr. Marrin yesterday afternoon after being treated to an early anniversary lunch by her parents.  We stumbled upon this restaurant/bar called Room 41 in Hamilton.  Quite swanky, and the food was beyond compare.  It was a good way to prep for our meeting.

Back to the meeting.  As you know, there was talk about a tracheotomy and a g-tube for feeding.   Dr. Marrin still thinks it to be a good idea, depending on how patient Rita and I want to be.  I responded by telling him "I work retail.  I'm a very patient person".  We discussed Lauren's progress thus far, and Rita and my feelings about wanting to wait a little longer, as Lauren is coughing up her secretions and make more audible noises on her own.  She is also having to be suctioned less, down from every 5-10 mins to every 3 hours.  It was brought up that a reason for her requiring to be suctioned less, is because she IS being suctioned less.  By this I mean, the body will naturally try to fight off anything unnatural.  By the nurses suctioning less, there is less material for Lauren's body to ward off, which means needing to be suctioned is not as frequent an occurance. 

Dr. Marrin has requisitioned for some surgeons to use a scope to see inside Lauren's throat, and what is happening when she breathes.  The thoughts so far as to why Lauren is having difficulties is that she has either a neuro-muscular or physio-muscular disorder.  For those who don't watch ER, Grey's Anatomy, or any other medical type show, neuro-muscular has to deal with the brain's ability to communicate with the muscles, and physio-muscular has to deal with the muscles actual ability.  If the throat muscles are just kind of flopping around, they need to strengthen up and become (what I believe Dr. Marrin called) calcified.  In short, stiffer.  The tracheotomy will take the strain off the muscles and allow them to grow and become stronger.  This could take up to a year.  But since Lauren is making progress, we've decided to wait until we hear back from the surgeons.  If what they see, they feel confident that Lauren can take care of herself, we'll wait about another 2 weeks before we make a decision.  If the surgeons come back saying they do not feel confident Lauren can heal herself, we'll go ahead with the tracheotomy.  It's tough, believe me it's tough.  But Lauren won't know what's going on, and Rita and I will become educated on how to take care of it. 

As hard as this is to do, it's because both Rita and I love her, and want her to be healthy.  If we go ahead with the tracheotomy, we might even have her home for Halloween!!!  It's not for sure, but yet another plan.  We seem to be having a lot of those.  But, again, we'll know soon enough.

I think that's it for now.  Words cannot express our gratitude for all of you.  You support us with your love.  You strenghten us with your prayers.  You are our support beams so we can take the pressure.  Thank you.