Every Breath You Take...

Apologies to FaceBook readers for the duplication of information...

I'm hoping that the doctors are going to ask for permission to give Alex a tracheotomy tomorrow; putting in a trach tube will mean we can take out the full throat tube and relieve a considerable amount of discomfort. Then waking him up will be much easier to do. THEN he can start the ACTIVE part of the healing process, getting his muscle tone back, etc. There's little risk of any sort in doing the tracheotomy, and it may save him a lot of stress that will only serve to delay the healing process and wear him out. As stable as he is at this point, there's only so much he can do at this point without some kind of intervention. The current ventilator tube is triggering his gag reflex, so now that he's less sedated, he feels like he's choking all the time. What a nightmare. Luckily the sedative that's in his system may be enough of an amnesiac (?is that the word I want?) that he won't remember, but the less he has in his system, the greater the chance is that he will remember and be traumatized.

Breathing's pretty important, but it sucks when you feel like you're constantly choking and your vocal chords are getting abraided. Fingers crossed for the docs to decide that he's had enough!

-Nancy