Aliana Elizabeth Davis
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DOB: 7/10/00
Diagnosis: Laryngomalacia, Tracheomalacia, Subglottic Stenosis, Hemangioma in the airway.
My baby girl, Aliana, was born on July 10, 2000 and came home appearing to be very healthy. Around 3 weeks of age, she started having some breathing difficulties and was sent to the PICU at our local hospital. She was diagnosed with laryngomalacia and tracheomalacia and was being kept through the weekend. Over the next few days her condition got worse and after a bronchoscopy, she had a cricoid split for subglottic stenosis. We went home from the hospital 12 days later and she once again appeared very healthy. Shortly thereafter she began having severe retractions and we went back to the hospital for 3 days, home for 3 days and back again. After another bronchoscopy, we were sent to University of Virginia Medical Center where there is a surgeon specializing in pediatric airways. It turns out that Ali has a huge hemangioma in her airway and that is what is causing the problem. Ali was given a tracheostomy on September 29th. On October 5th, the surgeon took another look to see if the steroids were helping to shrink the hemangioma but they are not, so we are looking at having the trach longer than originally anticipated.
Aliana is doing great and it is such a relief to see her breathing so easy. We go back to the doctor on December 4th to see if there is any more progress. If it is gone, great, but if not, that's also fine.....as long as we have our little angel here with us....trach or not.
