Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, it's off to Cincinnati we go!

I know I haven't updated in a while since little M2's surgery, but he is doing just fine. After his surgery and stay in the Complex Airway Unit at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, he came home to recover. And did so, wonderfully. Dr Cotton had said after the surgery that he wanted to see M2 back in no less than 6 weeks, and true to their scheduling M2 is headed back to Cincinnati tomorrow morning, 6 weeks to the day of his Airway Reconstruction Surgery.

Waiting in Pre-Op for a new airway.
M2 had a bit of a hard time at first, having a new airway means learning how to breathe, eat, drink and talk all over again. He did fine with the breathing, and not to bad with the eating, but the drinking and talking was a different story. When we were discharged M2 hadn't even tried to form a word, let alone try to speak one. We were told that was normal and to let him heal, he would start talking again when he felt safe doing it. And true to their word, M2 started talking, laughing and even crying again about 1 1/2-2 weeks ago.
He came home on 'thickened' liquids, meaning we put Simply Thick into anything he drank so that he won't aspirate on his liquids. When he first starting drinking again (about 3 days after surgery) every time he took a drink it came back out of his trach. So when we first came home we were putting 2 packets of thickener in every cup of milk. We've slowly stepped it down aver the last 6 weeks, and last week he was back to drinking regular fluids with no aspirating!!!

Playing in his bed in the Complex Airway Unit after his airway surgery.

So tomorrow we are going back to Cincinnati, Dr Cotton will take M2 back into the OR put a scope down his airway and look around. If everything looks like it's healing well M2 will go to a room and his trach will be capped! Which basically means he will have to learn to breathe, eat, drink and talk again!!

Hubby buckling M2 into his car seat to come home after the last surgery. Do you see that he is clapping his hands??

If he can do all of those things and keep his oxygen stats up he will come home with a capped trach! Which means we are one more step closer to getting rid of the trach!!

So hopefully we are home by the weekend with a happy little boy with a capped trach and he can continue doing what he does best. Playing and bringing smiles to the faces of the people who love him!!