A Cap

Ivey visited her pulmonologist at the Trach Clinic last Friday. A week has blown by without blinking, but I'll get to the good news eventually.

The cap for Ivey's trach is here with us, but due to a cold for over two weeks, Ivey is yet to get much practice with it. The cap is a plastic - well, cap - that covers the opening of her trach. It allows Ivey to breathe trough her nose/mouth. It completely closes off the opening to her trach.

We are waiting to see how it goes with Ivey and her cap. There is potential for a, how did the doctor put it? - behavioral problem. Problem being that Ivey has not left her humivent or passy miur valve on her trach in weeks and weeks. She would rather take them off, sling them to the floor and stick her finger in her trach, thus her finger acting as a cap. With her finger in her trach she chats it up! I can't wait to see if she leaves the cap on......

Okay, so the cap is not really the good news, just a prelude to it.

Mark your calendars for April 25th...Ivey's birthday. She will go back to visit her pulmonologist. The following Monday, the 28th, she will go in for an over night sleep study. If she does well, the trach will come out!!!!! Then she will be observed for 24 hours and come home trach free.

I can't tell you how exciting it is that the dates are marked. Just keep thinking sleep study....must pass sleep study..... Considering that she pulled her trach out today, and never even coughed, I think she is ready. I don't mean pulled it out and I put it right back down. She probably had it out for minutes before I noticed. The part of the trach that is normally in her throat was tucked nice and neat under the collar of her shirt. She is just a bag of tricks. A few months ago I would have panicked....today, with her sitting there happy as a lark, no distress, I have no question that she is ready to say bye-bye to her trach. Let's just hope she doesn't make a habit out of this though!