Biopsy Results

Faster than expected the biopsy results came in and we received a call from Dr. Chen last night. She says that Ainsley is negative for eosinaphilic esophagitis which they thought perhaps she might have as a result of reflux. It would have explained the swelling but I think it’s good she doesn’t have that. The cells do test positive for inflammation/swelling. That’s good in that it rules out some sort of congenital abnormality of the tissue and the swelling should go away. Unfortunately since the doctors have no idea what’s causing the swelling, there is no specific way to treat it. She’s starting a new reflux medicine ranitidine. Although Ainsley doesn’t have classic acid reflux she does still throw up about twice a day from coughing (due to the secretions from the trach). It would be great if it helped but she was on Prevacid in the past, and that didn’t help. Over the last 2-3 weeks she has been throwing up less, and when she does I give her water by mouth to try to wash away any acid. I figure it can’t hurt and maybe it’ll help. They would like the swelling to go down some to make surgery on the vocal cords easier. So we’ll be hoping that somehow something changes and that the swelling starts to improve. She has a speaking valve (PMV) that allows her to inhale through the trach but restricts airflow out of the trach requiring that she exhale by mouth/nose and therefore push air past the vocal cords to achieve vocalization. Now she can wear it for a few minutes before it builds pressure and shoots across the room. If she starts to be able to tolerate that regularly we’ll know that the swelling is reducing. If that happens of course we’ll let everyone know.