The Stirbaby

I am at the hospital with Ammon tonight, again. We went up for a sleep study on Sunday night, but because of his stridder breathing I had Dr. Smith see him that next morning, hoping that he would help him out.

Not only did he see him, but he decided to do surgery. They and his residents went in and did a thorough scoping of his throat, and then used an expanding ballon to open up the passage. They then placed a intubating tube in the throat, only being able to use one the size that is normally used in babies that are six months old.

The Dr. is Marshall Smith, an ENT both at PCMC and at the University Hospital. He is LDS and I have really grown to like him. He has a sister, a Mrs. Glen (if I remember right) living in Salem in right next to the LDS church where Gillian used to go for YSA.

Ammon still is intubated as of tonight, and will not get the tube out until tomorrow. If it goes really well and the desired results come from the surgery as planned, then he will be able to soon go home. But there is a big chance that he will need an additional surgery, a tracheotomy, which the Dr. says will be temporary while, for a couple of months, they do additional work to correct the airway problem.

Mom took some pictures home which the Doctor gave me. On the back of one of them the Doctor wrote the names of the procedures which they did. If Mom can do it, she should copy that information onto the blog for all of you technical folks, especially Jason, pals around with those ENT men at Iowa. She could scan the pictures is she wants and place them in the blog, too. I think she could do it at BYU.

I am surviving except for a bad bed and a sore back, but I will live. So will Ammon, and for that I am so thankful. We love him so much for the sacrifice he made in coming to this life like he did. He did that to our family. I hope Chris and I are learning all he came to us to teach. Someday, that service will pass on to others of you. Look forward to it, he is a fine man.

The day will come in the Spirit world when we embrace as equals, at least I hope all of us that have associated with him will come close to being his equal.

Dad Clark