March
2008
Trached0
For better or for worse, Dorrie is now trached.
We were fortunate in that the ENT who did the surgery (who also put tubes in her ears back in Dec) had also recently done another trach on another long-term ICN resident. This baby also has Dorrie’s problem — a little neck and a big fat face — which makes a standard trach more likely to chafe and cause skin breakdown. So he was able to order her a special flexible kind which sticks out further so as not to be covered by her neck, and he said he’d had some ideas about initial care which should hopefully reduce her discomfort as she heals from this.
She’ll spend tonight on the meds she’s been on for the past month, and then hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to try and let her wake up a bit.
The only nice thing about this is that for the first time in 8 months, we finally get to see her face without any tape or tubes stuck to it.