My Son Got his Tracheostomy out yesterday!
By guss2000
@guss2000 (2232)
United States
October 8, 2009 7:22am CST
My son is a three and a half year old. He was born at 26 weeks gestation weighing 1 pounds 11 ounces. His airway closed up on him due to scarring, so when he was about 6 weeks old, they placed a tracheostomy in his neck to bypass the airway that was scarred.
At around 2 years old, we found out that my son had a blockage of 95% in his airway. it was a Grade C, which is the worst--- and at that time we really didn't think he would ever get to have his tracheostomy removed.
His ENT doctor started doing balloon dilations on my son's airway. He had about 6 of those done over a year, and it made the blockage go down a little bit, but not too significant. This past July, my son had a full airway reconstruction using rib cartilage. The operation was a success. For the last several weeks, we have capped off his trach, allowing him to breathe through his regular airway. A couple weeks ago, we had a sleep study with the cap, seeing how he breathed at night. he passed the test.
Yesterday, we were able to get his tracheostomy out. It's a huge milestone for my son, and I wanted to share with my Mylot friends.
We are currently in the hospital, but should be discharged on Friday, if all goes as planned.
If you can spare some prayers, please keep my little boy in them during this time.
He did have a little difficulty last night once he fell asleep, he wasn't sure how to cough out of his regular airway--- the docs think it may take a little bit of learning to figure that out.
1 person likes this
1 response
@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
8 Oct 09
Your child is incredible! I can't imagine how hard it must be to be so strong but God is helping you and your family I'm glad that your son is able to adapt to such a change in life. My prayer is that he will continue to grow stronger and that you will know he is protected by love.
1 person likes this
@guss2000 (2232)
• United States
3 Jan 10
hi gifted! It's now been almost 4 months since his trach was removed and he is doing wonderful! He did have a small RSV scare just before Christmas, but he fought it off. We did have to give him a little oxygen one night, but thankfully I was able to administer it at home. Then, the next few nights we let him sleep sitting up in the recliner chair to help the fluid in his nose and lungs drain down instead of clogging up his airway, and that worked well! The docs said it takes weeks to recover from RSV, usually, but my son was better in about 4 days. It's crazy how lucky my boy is!