Trache Be Gone and Moving On!

Kevin slept one more night with his tracheostomy plugged, and he passed with flying colors. This morning, someone finally made a decision, and they removed his tracheostomy! He has been doing extremely well since the minute they took the trache out. He’s been coughing much less while still getting plenty of oxygen.

Kevin’s speech is also greatly improved without the trache; if he says something out of the blue, we’re able to understand him. Before, in order to understand him, we often needed to know the topic he was talking about. Also, Kevin swallowed a tiny bit of applesauce yesterday. His swallowing isn’t perfect yet, but after more improvement, milkshakes might be on the menu again!

Yesterday, one of our favorite nurses brought Kevin a March Madness bracket to fill out. The nurse figured that Kevin is missing out on a lot right now, but he shouldn’t have to miss this year’s tournament. Kathlin and Kevin filled out the bracket this morning. Much to Kathlin’s dismay, Kevin insisted that Syracuse won't make the championship game (additional apologies to the New York crowd).

We even have more good news—it looks like Kevin will be moving to Santa Clara Valley’s rehab unit sometime in the next few days. His strength and endurance are quickly returning, and the therapists and doctors agree that he’s ready for therapy. We’re also on board with this plan. Even with very intense and exhausting therapy sessions, Kevin has been antsy for at least the past week. He’s looking forward to going back to Santa Clara. Kevin really enjoys working towards set goals: being independent again, having Kathlin be his girlfriend and no longer his caregiver, going on a date with Kathlin… along with goals like being able to stand and walk.

Thank you to everyone for sending Kevin your best wishes and prayers. He’s making impressive improvements every day, and it looks like that won’t stop any time soon.