Who gave you the magic 80 percent number, Psyborg? I was at 2.5 mm at dx, and opened back up to about 7 mm when all was said and done (normal about 8 or 8.5). My doc would operate again when I got around 5 mm, and I would probably just barely be noticing it at that point. My stenosis is in the subglottis though, very little in the trachea, so I'm not sure if that's where the difference lies -- maybe it has to be really bad before they will touch the trachea since it's hard to get to?

And how would they open you up? That's the other question.