I am happy to add a princess castle cake to my repertoire of amateur cake decorating. I think it turned out very well.
Kiera tolerated the singing of Happy Birthday a little bit better but had to cry when we all clapped. She clearly looks concerned, but I swear, all we were doing was singing. :)Yesterday, Kiera had her newest trach tube put in. This one is CUFFLESS. The old ones had an inflatable balloon to seal her airway which also made it more difficult to teach her to talk. Now I am HEARING her make noises even without her speech valve in! Hooray! It will still be a while before she talks, but she is definitely starting to vocalize some things like making sound when she wants our attention or a different video. I can't wait to see what she does. She vocalized "hat" the other day while signing "hat" during her signing video. She is also on CPAP (no vent rate) while awake and a low rate of 6 when sleeping. Barring illness, we should get to start trach collar trials September 1st! That is where she is only on oxygen assistance without the pressure support from the CPAP.
Of course, there is a small drawback with the trach collar trials. The nurses tell me that Kiera will be MORE able to get sick because of the "open system" of the trach collar as opposed to the "closed system" of the ventilator. What that means for friends, family, and visitors is even more diligence with hand washing, sanitizing, and flu shots. I hadn't thought about it since, in my mind, she would be more able to fight things off as she got older. Anyway, sorry, but I will have to be a germ-a-phobe once again this fall.
1 comment:
Yeah for cuffless trach!! Go Kiera!
It has made such a difference for us in terms of trach changes, I can't even begin to say. On top of that, no more stupid inflation valve to get caught on everything and be a temptation for chewing.
Post a Comment