6th July 2014

Another small update in Steven’s recovery. After yet another visit to hospital to see another doctor regarding the recurring pain in his left elbow, he and we received yet another opinion about the reason for the problem, and for once, this opinion seems to be correct. He was advised that, after seeing scans, there were small pieces of calicification “floating” around the elbow. The recommendation was no an operation, but was to work the elbow through the pain, to remove the calcification. Steven informed his trainer at his gym, and they came up with an exercise programme. As a result of this, and despite initial intense pain, Steven is beginning to straighten his elbow, the feeling in his fingers is returning, and the pain is subsiding. The result of this is that with one less pain to worry about, his general health is improving, to the point that he is actually putting on a small amount of weight, and there is a definite improvement in muscle definition. Whilst at the hospital, Steven also saw a “plastic surgeon” with a view to repairing or improving the look of his tracheotomy scar. From there we visited another surgeon who gave him two options for the repair. One was to remove muscle from his chest and place this into his throat, the other was to extract fat from his body to put into the area of the scar, and then hide it with a skin graft. Steven decided on the second option since he didn’t want any more scars. However, he was told, that during the operation, if that didn’t work, they would have to go for the first option whilst on the operating table. In the meantime Steven has made another visit to the hospital for a session of laser hair removal around the throat area, which was far more painful than he expected. He has to go for another session of hair removal in about 3 weeks, and then a decision will be made about the date of his throat surgery.