The trach is OUT! As of 6 days ago, his doctor was able to remove his trach... as of yesterday the gauze over the hole was no longer sucking in (his words, not mine). The tracheostomy was the most difficult thing for him to cope with throughout this journey...he adapted to the strangeness of breathing and talking with it in 5 days (silence for 5 days from Al is torture) ... but then came the process of daily living. For a man who has never truly dealt with serious illness...or real  surgery (hernia doesn’t count dad) ... basically his flu shot was the most traumatic annual experience—the tracheostomy was hard... excruciatingly hard! It was visible and something that said ‘I’m sick’. For someone (my dad) who wouldnt want any living thing to feel an ounce of sadness or sympathy towards him or his situation, the tracheostomy was the mark of a ‘sick’ person. He cannot see himself as sick.  He is not his illness.