Look who's talking...

My goodness, what an afternoon we had. First off Rob's trache team doctor came to check him over. He said that it seemed Rob was doing good enough to let him try breathing without the oxygen mask. So he removed that and let the air out of the balloon in the trache. By doing that, Rob could put a finger over the trache opening and talk! He was a little speechless at first. What would a person say if they hadn't talked in over a month? But it didn't take him long to find the words. He's still on some medication that makes him very relaxed so he's pretty mellow right now and doesn't talk my ear off...yet. But I'm sure that day is coming.

Once the doctor returned, he decided to replace the #8 trache with a #6 trache which is a lot smaller. That gives Rob more room to breathe around it. So once that was done this afternoon, Rob can now put a cap over the trache whenever he wants to talk. It was a much different feeling to start breathing normally instead of through the trache. Also since the trache is still in place, it takes up space in his airway. So that makes it a little harder to breathe around but Rob is managing. They took the cap off tonight when he went to sleep but they want him to keep it on as much as possible otherwise. They plan to remove the trache either Saturday or Sunday as long as he is doing well and his oxygen saturation in his blood is at an acceptable level. He's so happy to be talking now. Each time a new visitor comes that hasn't heard him talk yet, he likes to get the first word in and surprise them. This afternoon really lifted his spirits.

They also removed him from the insulin IV drip. He is now getting insulin via injection as needed. His sugars are starting to level out so he doesn't need as much of it. He still has the IV in place as of right now but they plan to remove that soon too. So in the next day or 2, he will potentially lose 2 of the 3 lines he has left. Then it's just the feeding tube in his nose that is left. He expressed today that he's ready to have that out. I don't imagine it will be there much longer.

Whew, what another eventful day for him! He's working hard and it's showing...a lot! I can't even say how excited I was to hear his voice again. He's finally back!

Kelly