11-3-10

Well, we are 5 days out of surgery today. The doctor changed her trach this morning, and she went from feeling nice and calm to turning into a tomato, even her ears were bright red. She has even figured out how to scream and cry, past the trach without any special valve. Wow, I have not seen her so mad, for a crazy long time. After about an hour she calmed down. She is doing good on less pain meds and I even caught a smile, as grandma Vicki was playing with her balloon and she was loving watching them bounce together.


You can still see humidity hooked up like a necklace but we are going to be getting off of it soon, at least during the day. With her trach, she did have a little bit of breakdown on her neck from the plastic holding the trach. So now we are keeping an eye on that. Over all we are still so glad this has taken place, that smile just shows us how much better she is doing. I'm hoping to get a nap in this afternoon, as I am exhausted, and while Grandma is still here, I better take advantage of the time.

Over the next few days, we are going to get a few of us trained. We have watched a video that is wonderful. It does not talk down to us, while at the same time does not talk above us, and the little girl in the video is wonderful and feisty, and so it was great to watch. I'm super comfy in doing the suctioning, and ready to do the rest with changing the trach and all, so feeling good about that. We are getting ready to use the Passy-Muir valve, to give Quinn a way to talk again. Even though she has always been very selective in who she will talk to, I'm ready for her to get her voice back, and thanks to this valve, she will, as long as she can tolerate it, and I'm praying she will. So after we both get a good nap in, we move out of PICU and back to the 5th floor, we will start working with the new valve, and we have finally been ok'ed to pick her up again, which is great! Honestly I have not yet, because I'm so tired, that I don't feel confident in doing that, because I'm so tired. So I'm hoping that by this evening, we will be rested, and working on talking, and just doing great!
thanks for checking in!
Susan

http://www.passy-muir.com/?gclid=CKifttSjhaUCFUS4Kgodw0iSPA