Exciting and probably with a lot of waiting rooms.

"You live a more exciting life than anyone else.  Exciting and probably with a lot of waiting rooms."  ~JT

JT summed it up in that one text she sent after I told her we were all home and doing well.  All home from where?  The CMH emergency room in downtown KCMO.  We like to keep it exciting.

Lydia decannulated today and her nurse couldn't get the 3.0 trach in, that's the normal one, or the 2.5 trach, that's one size smaller in case the normal one can't go in.  Yikes!  No trach.  911.  Okay, so Lydia didn't have a trach in.  That's her safe airway people.  Lydia didn't have any oxygen.  Well, we had it, she just didn't need it.  Through all the trach change trials, the call and wait for the paramedics, the flirting with the firemen (they always show up when I'm not home!), the ambulance ride, the chatting with the ER nurses, etc., lil' miss look at me had O2 saturation of 100%.  That is awesome-sauce.

Lydia really did have a grand time riding in the big rig, chatting up her new friends, and exploring a new part of CMH.  By the way, people all over that place know her, not sure how, but one of the ER nurses did.  Back to the story.  I arrive, Lydia arrives, I walk into her room and am greeted by my smiling baby with crazy hair, sitting up, kicking her feet and stats of 100% O2.  She's a ham.  I talk to her nurse, talk to the ER nurses, sign some stuff, and then look at her stoma, that's the hole the trach goes in.  Yikes!  No hole.  Instead there is some granulation tissue prolapse - some what? - gnarly skin growth coming out of the stoma.  Some ENT nurse in extra bright scrubs got all excited and sent of picture to Dr. Neff and Dr. Shah.

Anyway, it was a pretty big event to get a trach, any trach, back into Lydia's stoma.  They tried a lot.  There was suctioning.  There was scoping.  There were cameras and some scary looking tools.  There was silver nitrate and cauterizing.  There was blood.  There were 6 to 8 people surrounding Lydia at any given time.  Lydia was screaming bloody murder.  Very few real tears though.  Someone gave her oxycodone that dribbled down her leg because the med port in her g tube wasn't shut.  Someone gave her more oxy.  We were one try away from getting to go visit the operating room.  I say we and I mean the super fab doctors and nurses at CMH and our very own home health nurse, aka Lydia's Bestie.  Sometimes I just get to be mom and stand back with the Home Vent team nurses while the not so fun stuff happens.  Then I can be the hero who snuggles and cuddles later.

Finally, new kind of trach goes in and Lydia is ready to snooze and eat.  She's HANGRY!  ENT was pretty stoked about her 02 sats and her Passy Muir trials so they are inviting us back next week for a trach change and to receive our cap.  I collected all the details I needed.  Our nurse collected all our belongings.  The three of us waited for our knight in shining armor to arrive with all we needed to head home.

What lessons did we learn today?

1. Lydia apparently can breathe super well without a trach and knock the socks off the O2 sats.
2. Lydia impressed Home Vent and ENT so much that we get to start a cap trial next week.
3. Mom has understanding coworkers that don't bat an eye when I say, "I'm out, later."
4. Mom remembers to hand off new FMLA papers in the heat of the moment to save a trip later.
5. Mom has an impromptu conference with Home Vent to discuss blended diet, Zyrtec and new pump.
6. Mom is resourceful and steals stuff off of carts to entertain her child and for teething purposes.
7. Dad rescued us with car seat, diaper bag, suction machine - all the necessary things to get home because when you take the ambulance somewhere it's a one way ticket.  Uber?
8. Lydia is a ROCKSTAR!