We wanted to give another update on Mom's progress, as she is now 11 days out from when she left the hospital and quite a bit of transition has taken place!

Mom went home with 2 large bags full of supplies, a suction machine, and a mist machine. The very next morning, UPS arrived with 7 boxes packed with more supplies! It was an eye-opening reality check for both Mom and Dad, and they instantly went to work organizing the supplies into new storage spaces, which included some handy work from Dad's wood shop!  This whole adventure has put both of them on a steep learning curve. Each day presents new insights and challenges about what it means to breathe...and all that goes into it. Mom is so thankful for each breath she continues to experience.

The mist machine is used every night, as well as the suction machine, which helps clean out the trach a few times a day. She learned the hard way to never tip her head back to wash her hair in the shower. It just takes one tiny drop coming down from her hair to face to neck, to enter the trach and cause instantaneous gasping for air. The suction machine came to her rescue the first 3 times she showered. We are so grateful for modern machinery! Since then, Mom tucks her chin down and wears a nylon bib, and has my Dad within earshot when she showers.  The strap that wraps around her neck to keep the trach tube in, requires 4 hands to replace when it gets wet. Two of those hands have to hold the tube so it doesn't fall out (and Mom makes sure those hands are only hers)! This will hopefully all change when she gets a smaller, and less obtrusive-looking, trach in a few months.

Mom has the option of wearing 1 of 2 vents, which are the pieces at the end of the trach. One is small (and only comes in the color purple), and allows her to talk much louder and easier that she has in the past 2 years. She can even sing a little with it! However, after a few minutes, it causes coughing. So, at this time, she prefers a tube-looking one that "protrudes an obnoxious 4.5 inches" from her neck. But not only is it much trickier to hide under a neck scarf, she cannot talk more that 2-3 fast words with it on before needing to stop to take a breath, prior to continuing her sentence. The coughing is caused by a number of factors: breeze, any scent at all, flowers, wood, spices...pretty much anything airborne. Mom is confident this will all get better over the next couple of weeks, let alone when she gets the small "button" trach. 

We continue to be so grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers, encouragement and support from so many near and far. Mom is amazing, as we all know, and her journey of recovering and transitioning into this new normal of life, is made so much easier because of each of you! Thank you!!