Plugged

We are always surprised at the procession of events in the hospital. For the first half of Monday, Kevin had a tough time breathing in enough oxygen. The lack of oxygen makes him very tired and unresponsive. We were really worried about this, and we were constantly coaching him to clear his throat, swallow and breathe deeply. He was really irritated with us by the time he started regularly getting enough oxygen!

More than anything else, physical therapy helped his oxygen intake on Monday. While giving the exercises 110%, Kevin started breathing much harder. Plus, moving around helped stimulate his cough. He was breathing so well after physical therapy that they decided to do a trial plugging of his tracheostomy. This tests if Kevin can breathe and protect his airway well enough on his own, without his trache.

As of right now, Kevin’s trache is still plugged. It’s been more than 24 hours! That’s a major achievement, especially after Monday morning, which was really rough in terms of his breathing. When we started asking about the plugging process several days ago, they said Kevin needed to be plugged for a 24-hour trial. After that, it would be okay to take the trache out.

But… (there’s always a but) now, the trial period has been extended from 24 to “?” hours. Each doctor or respiratory therapist is pointing fingers at each other, saying that the other person is the one to decide if Kevin is ready to get his trache out. So, while this will be a frustrating process since no one wants to step up to bat and make a decision, we’re happy that Kevin has done amazingly well with the trial so far.

For the second day in a row, Kevin worked extremely hard in physical therapy. He reached an important milestone: Kevin stood up for the first time in almost six weeks! The physical therapist and aides were giving Kevin a lot of support, but we’re thrilled he’s starting to regain some strength. Kevin also sat up in a wheelchair for three hours. He’s exhausted after such a big day—speech, occupational and physical therapy, sitting in a chair and breathing around a plugged trache is a lot of work! We’re extremely proud that he’s exerting so much effort to get a little better every day.