Long Time No Post

I realized the other day just how long it had been since I had posted an entry - I suck ... sorry :o)

There is a reason why I haven't been blogging much - here is a picture from his 4th b-day party- see if you an figure it out...

Notice something missing ? Something white, with a bright red cap on it , say, oh , I dunno , dangling from his neck ?? Yep , he was decannulated ( no more trach) on 9-9-09 and we have been busy ever since ! We have 3 1/2 years of experiences to catch up on !! The surgery itself was so much less than we thought it would have to be ! The malformation I have mentioned in the previous post was were two of the cartilage rings in his trachea had be messed up from the pressure of the trach over time.

In the example above you can see the trach tube is entered in the 3rd and 4th rings of the trachea in Sebastian case, over time, the tube broke parts of numbers 5 and 6 away , causing a 60-70 % occlusion of his airway. Dr.F and company were able to just sew the pieces back in place , opening up his airway and was able to remove his trach ! No graft, no vent , no significant hospital stay !

This being said I now look back in amazement that he was able to breath through such a tiny opening ! With his trach being capped he was breathing through his nose and mouth , it would be like trying to breath through a straw . ( BTW, give that a shot ! Not so much fun) Yet , he would run and play as hard as he could .

Now with the trach out he is Mr.Go-Go-Go !!! From the time he wakes up until he falls asleep , or should I say crashes in an exhausted heap - Sebastian is on the move ! Dancing, running, rolling around , jumping , you name it kid is doing it !

Before the dressing was even off he was playing with chalk on the sidewalk.. didn't really get it but loved when I wrote letters on the ground that he could walk on . Within 2 weeks he was splashing around the shallow end of a pool for the first time over and by 4 weeks he was seriously playing in the water , without a fear in the world !

Since Sebastian, Jamie (DH) and I all have birthdays within 11 days of each other ( Bas- Jan 24th , mine - Jan 26th and Jamie -Feb 11th) I decided we should go to FL and within 72 hours we were on the plane heading there ! Last year Jamie and I both turned 30 but with my mom's passing we didn't feel up to doing anything special for the occasion, of course. I had always planned to celebrate turning thirty and entering that new phase of my life - so this year I got to celebrate my 30th (w/ one year experience) birthday on the beach.

It was a first for both Sebastian and I , walking the on the beach and seeing the ocean and it was kind of neat to do it together :o)

Since this has gotten so long , I will call it quits for now and add some more of our FL birthday adventure later.