AIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, as if I haven't already had enough crises lately...yesterday we had one more. To make a long story shorter, Kevin ended up rushing me BACK to the hospital Emergency Room because I couldn't breathe again. Their temporary treatment involved putting me on "Heliox", which is a mixture of helium and oxygen. I guess the helium goes down the restricted airway easier. The interim result is that I sounded alternatively like Mickey Mouse...

Or "Squeaky", the Eight Dwarf!!!

After some consultation between doctors, it was decided to transport me up to the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake. There I was rushed into surgery by Dr. Marshall Smith - a professor and expert in airway medicine and treatment. That he would make time to treat me so promptly, and fit me into his very busy schedule is a miracle in and of itself. He even bumped another emergency surgery out of the Operating Room because he felt I was more of an urgent case. I guess I just hadn't realized just how much of an emergency my situation was. Dr. Smith was able to insert a breathing tube down my esophagus and use that to thread a balloon down the scar tissue obstruction...which had now shrunk to a 5 millimeter opening!

YIKES!!!

With the balloon, he was able to get the opening to 15 mm after which he injected the scar tissue with steroids to encourage it to stay shrunk!

That was last night. I got out of surgery around 9pm. I was released from the hospital at about 10:00 this morning. Kevin took me to Temple Square to see the beautiful gardens and enjoy being outside. Something I haven't been able to enoy for the last two months.

Bottom line is: I CAN BREATHE FREELY!!!!

...and I no longer sound like HIM: