01/03/2025
It has been approximately 45 days since Jacob's last trach change. I elected to do it today with the help of Mark Toole. Once again, following Dr. DeSilva's advice, I "flushed" the trach 3 times prior to making the change.
The flush consists of deflating the inner cuff, while suctioning. Then reinflating the cuff and stop. Repeating this procedure three times. Doing this allows any excess buildup of drainage to run towards the lungs, while suctioning it back out. The whole point of this procedure is to keep Jacob from getting sick. Every time we've done this change, he has had a slight fever, with body aches and chills. He would be lethargic for a couple of days after every tracheostomy change.
The plan was to change this at 30 days following the manufacturer recommendation. Due to the holidays, we elected to wait until today. The change was still very difficult. It was a struggle to get the old tracheostomy out. Even with the cuff fully deflated on the outside, the inside balloon would not go completely flat. I gave Jacob the option to have this done by the doctor from now on, but he still prefers dad to do it. As of bedtime tonight, he was still not sick, so we pray this change was successful.
