Went for a four-month post-surgery checkup CT scan on Friday -- One of the Cutthroat residents looked at it and pronounced it to look good, except my airway is still very tight (but it feels looser than before) -- Again, I asked for, and received, a copy of the scan for my referring Doc, so they didn't charge me for it.
After a short consult with Dr Haakenslash, the Cutthroat did some more silver nitrate cauterizing in my mouth to remove the excess granulation, esp next to my teeth -- That stuf tastes nasty, and even though he cleaned most of it out, I still had to do some more removal with tweezers at home to get the dead stuf out -- I should have borrowed the long, sure-grip tweezers and snips for the home work (If we do it again, I will) -- Next visit in a month.
Of course all this work bled a bit and I must be swallowing some of it because the slime in my airway was tinged with it, but much less so today -- All this activity is producing a lot more slime than usual, so I'm doing a lot of 'mopping' around my trach with paper towel bits.
Had some tissue granulation cleaned up last week around my PEG and the Doc mentioned that if it became a long-term problem, we could try a Low Profile PEG -- Based on another posting, I found the Mic-Key (Mickey Mouse??) low-profile PEG, which comes in various sizes up to 24FR!! Costs more than my current PEG likely did, but might be worth a try!
Here's a YouTube of a Mic-Key being changed and you can also see the tube that comes with it to attach for feeding (Christine, note the shut-off clamp that comes with the attachment; also note that Anthony takes his food at 300 ml/hr on the 'Roo pump).
Age 67 1/2 Ventral Tongue SCC T2N0M0G1 10/05 Anterior Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 6/08 Base of Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 12/08 Three partial glossectomy (10/05,11/05,6/08), PEG, 37 XRT 66.6 Gy 1/06 Neck dissection, trach, PEG & forearm free flap (6/08) Total glossectomy, trach, PEG & thigh free flap (12/08) On August 21, 2010 at 9:20 am, Pete went off to play with the ratties in the sky.
