I May Have To Give Up Sleeping or Coffee

This is the middle of Week Four with no weekday nurse - day or night. Yeah, you can say it...our current agency reeks! (Not the word you were gonna use? Well, feel free to fill in with your favorite.)

If you have followed along, you know that I am trying to remedy the situation by switching to another {hopefully} more competent agency. But wouldn't you know it, I have hit a MAJOR snafu; the Doctor's office has not signed the paperwork in a timely manner. After a week of being nice about it, I was ready to blow today. I sent a few curt emails, I called and spewed venom...I guess no one is worried about it. Of course not, because I am the one losing sleep.

The ONE reason I agreed to Home Health Nursing in the first place was to avoid a day EXACTLY like today. Today Austin did something he hasn't done in almost a year. It is something I wish he would never do, but since those eyes in back of head were once again not working, it happened. BEFORE.I.HAD.MY.COFFEE!! Why do bad things happen before I have had my coffee?

We were up at 5:45AM, of course, because there is no sleeping in when Mommy is on 24/7 duty. Once I got the medication, water bolus, breathing treatments & one Baby Einstein DVD out of the way, we headed to the living room. At 7:00AM, I sat Austin in his high chair and hooked up his feeding, just on time for Sesame Street. I went to the kitchen to get my coffee started, grab something to eat and turn on the computer.

A few minutes later I went to check on him, as he has a "thing" for playing with the tube and thus feeding the chair or the rug. He was fine, tube was intact. I went back to the kitchen to get my coffee. Upon my return to the living room he was still watching TV and twirling his Trach in his hand. Yes. Double Take! Twirling.His.Trach.In.His.Hand.

From the moment I found him it took about a minute to get a new trach open, lube, ties and get it back in. He sat watching Elmo the entire time. Breathing. Calm. Not a care in the world.

Never a dull moment I tell ya.

The funny part, yes there is a funny part {sort of}. Two days ago I was laughing at my mom because she caught Austin, with a trach in his hand, playing. She screamed. I ran. It turns out it was Toby's new trach. We had a good chuckle about it. So for a split second this morning , I thought 'how did he get Toby's trach again?' Then I realized he is in the high chair. It's not Toby's. It's his!

It appears that he did not intend to remove his trach, or at least I don't think he did. He likes to tug off the HME every chance he gets and I guess the ties were a bit loose from his overnight wrestling match with the crib. So the entire trach came out in one fell swoop. For how long? I am not sure exactly. One minute, Two? No coughing or distress whatsoever.

All I can say is Thank God he waited until I was awake, imagine if he had done that in his sleep? I mean yeah sure an alarm would go off, eventually. SCARY. In this case at least I was {somewhat} alert and quick thinking enough to grab the emergency trach and supplies from the suction bag sitting next to him.

The accidental decann. Ah yes, the joys of living with a Trach child.

See that the light at the end of the tunnel?



It's just little ol' me, with a flashlight, searching for my freakin' heart! It jumped straight out of my shirt and I think it rolled under the sofa. Popular place.

Our weekend Nurse will be back on Friday at 6:00AM. I may not sleep until then.


Thanks for peeking,





Flickr Photo by Lui G. Marin