Soon To Be De-trachetized... And Everyday Fun!

Apparently the word "decannulation" isn't a common every day word... and neither is the process of how the trache comes out. So, here goes :)

As one of my best girlfriend's put it when I told her about Samuel's upcoming attempt at decannulation, "you mean he's being de-trachetized?!" (Julie, I love that!) And to answer the question, yes! And, I think that word is actually a much better one than decannulated :)

At 7am on Friday morning Samuel will undergo one more surgery to remove granulation tissue (scar tissue) from his airway, one more look at his vocal chords, and another shot at a hearing screening, but as long as everything looks good then the trache will literally just be taken out. Crazy.

From what I understand, they will simply take the trache out and place some type of bandage over the hole in his neck and we will be good to go. Absolutely crazy.

It's kind of like an earring hole and should close on it's own. Seriously crazy.

That said, after about 6 weeks we will go back to have the stoma (hole in his neck) checked out. Most likely Samuel will undergo a stoma revision surgery, during which they completely close the hole and make the scar a little smaller, kind of like plastic surgery I think.

Lately I've become a little panicked about taking care of the stoma once the trache it out. It may sound a little nuts, but I'm completely comfortable caring for it with the trache it - and yes, you can see inside the hole even when the trache is in - but once it's out, I'm definitely back a few steps on the comfort level. Good thing I've seen first-hand how something like this becomes part of your everyday routine and you forget why you were ever nervous :)

The open hole does mean I'll have to wait a little while before dumping water on his head, but I'm okay with that. However, it does not mean we have to wait for a beach visit! As long as the trache actually comes out, we got the go-ahead to put a bandage over that stoma and head towards the surf! Of course, back to the cleaning part, I'm not looking forward to after the beach, but overall it's a small price to pay :)

By the way, the chain is down to TWO! Back to everyday fun at the Byrne house... see below :)

Cutest firefighter that I ever did see :)

An oldie but a goodie... no worries, Samuel is not back on his passy muir,

I just love this photo from a few weeks ago of he and his PT!

Oh geez - do I really look THAT stressed out, Olivia!

Much better :)
Mama and daughter enjoying some computer time together :)

This house is terribly tiny, but the kiddos didn't seem to mind :)
Olivia swinging from the rafter, George checking to see who's at the front door,

and Samuel... I swear he's not miserable!


Seriously - he wasn't miserable!
Olivia, on the other hand, was completely unhappy about having her photo taken. Ha ha!

Yea! See! Samuel IS happy!

George decided he had enough of the close quarters... he was off to explore.

Olivia decided she wanted to go along for the adventure of moving leaves from one pile to another...

... with that rake and bucket it appears she may be trying to direct the leaf moving :)

But I don't think George is paying too much attention.

Although a prone stander isn't necessarily "normal life" for most folks - Pooh Bear is!

Plus, I have to brag on my boy - he is doing great in this thing!

Mo and Do, thank you very much for sending DB a birthday card that sings and lights up... and please sense the sarcasm.

All three kiddos LOVED it :)