raising hunter: August 2012

Where to begin....Our trip to Cincinnati went awesome! Hunter got his trach removed!!!! We are beyond happy and feeling really blessed right now that in such a short time from when we first went out there to have a second opinion around end of March to now and he already has his trach out! Dr. Rutter, the ENT surgeon is amazing and I can't thank him enough. He has literally changed Hunter's life and ours. It's still pretty surreal that Hunter is now trach free and we don't have medical supplies and extra trach care to worry about. I still feel more comfortable with carrying the suction machine around...I know I know crazy huh? But it's been a part of me for so long now that it will take some time to get it through my head that I don't need it. It's of no use anymore to us...very strange to think about.

Let me start with the beginning of the trip...We left last Wednesday the 1st...Hunter was lucky enough to go into the cockpit of the plane and meet the pilots and even sit in their chair! He was a little shy at first but he enjoyed it all the while. Trip was uneventful (just how I like it). We got to our hotel and had a nice dinner that night before we left for the hospital the next morning.

Thursday we went to the hospital at 10:30am, did the usual, sat in a tiny room trying to keep Hunter entertained for approx 2 hours before he went to the OR. Luckily the nurse found the CARS dvd so Hunter was watching that and that helped a lot. He also found a train he enjoyed to play with. Then it was time to bring him back to the OR. We sat in the waiting room for about 15mins before they called us to the consultation rooms..

Dr. Rutter came and said everything looks good and tomorrow we can have the trach taken out! Such awesome news to hear...He said after this we would come back in about 6 weeks and take another look and check to see if Hunters stoma (hole where trach went in) is closed completely or if we need a small procedure done to close it all the way.

The next morning the a whole bunch of nurses, etc came in and watched as Jeremy took Hunter's trach out! Hunter was distracted by bubbles and didn't even flinch in the least about anything. Our instructions were to keep Hunter on all his monitors that day and night and then Saturday he could be off all monitors and we could roam the hospital and not be couped up in the room again. We were discharged Sunday and very happy to leave the hospital...it gets quite boring trying to keep a toddler happy all day in a small room.

Before we left we did manage to check out the Zoo and check out a cool restaurant called Bakersfield (Jeremy is originally from there) it's named after the country/rock music scene that was popular there. They had the best taco's and magarita's!! We'll go back to there for sure..

It's still doesn't seem real to us but we are so happy it is real...Hunter had his trach longer than he didn't have a trach...which is weird to think too. Surprisingly he hasn't messed with his neck at all. I thought he be touching it etc..Nothing. I guess that's a good thing.