I failed to mention she is also "cruising!"

So, yeah, Kiera has simultaneously started cruising the coffee table (a little). Today she stood propped by the table for about an hour through all of Sesame street. She was active enough to pull out her G-tube button about 5 or 6 times yesterday...a bit exasperating to say the least, and it leaves me unsure as to how much food she really got. My carpet is well fed, however. She crawled all the way from the fireplace to my piano in my office! I will finally have to start child proofing a little more. Although since her crawling requires and ventilator attendant, she is generally under close observation and can have things taken away from her that she shouldn't have. I really like her Kangaroo Joey feeding pump. I was able to clamp it to the vent stand so we only have the one stand to move around even if she's on a feeding.

My husband officially announced that I am "super woman" Thursday night. :) Since he was driving to Phoenix for a quick overnight trip, I wanted to test myself and did a trach change by myself without his assistance but with him present in case I got into trouble. It went relatively well, especially with Elmo's help. The key is in having EVERYTHING at your fingertips and in the order of operations. (Good thing I'm a math geek and have learned my order of operations) :) Since during the change one hand has to be holding in the untied trach at all times, two handed tasks must happen before the change. I.E. I deflate the cuff on the current trach and disconnect the ventilator from the trach to be removed FIRST, then I undo ties and remove the current trach with one hand and put in the clean lubed up one with the other hand. While holding in the new trach, I reattach the ventilator, then inflate the cuff, and then start attaching the clean, powdered trach ties. After the ties are attached I can clean up the area and apply her foam dressing. Viola. :) She fought a little when I was trying to put the new one in, and Jer helped in holding her arms down, but I think I could get through that, too, if necessary, in an emergency. Plus, she would probably be less likely to fight if it were an emergency like a plug or decanulation. Of course, in a decanulation, one would just get the obturator and put the "dirty" one back in first, and then prepare a trach change ASAP.

Guess that's it for now. I need to bath Kiera and change trach ties. Somewhere in here I might eat breakfast. :) It's only 1:30 in the afternoon.

Therese