Saying goodbye to an old friend

Landon is four and a half years old.  So for four and a half years Braydon and I have been doing whatever we can to make his life better and do the right thing by him.  Every decision we have made is for his best interest.  We've spent hours upon hours going to doctors visits and therapy appointments.  All to make his life better.

Landon hasn't had it very easy in this life.  He's seen more operating rooms in his short four years than many of us will see in a lifetime.  He started out that way and it hasn't changed.  It's become our normal.  People say to me, "You talk like it's normal."  Well, it is.  To us.  We didn't know any other way till Sydney came along.

July 5, 2007

The start of it all...

Starting out on July 5, 2007, Landon was a different child.  We never saw him as different, but other people liked to remind us every time we would take him anywhere.  Braydon actually had someone at a store stop and ask him a couple weeks ago if Landon was going to "make it".  Braydon just laughed.  Of course he's gonna make it!  He's already made it!  If you only knew, sir.  If you only knew all the things Landon has endured.  He HAS and WILL make it!

When Landon was one month old, his doctors in the NICU at Children's Hospital talked to us about putting a tracheotomy tube in Landon's airway.  He had failed many attempts to take a breathing tube out of his mouth, and they wanted him to have a better quality of life.  And so did we.  So we agreed.  We thought that this trach journey would end a few months or a year later.  We had no idea.  It was wishful thinking.

One month old

Not too long after he got the trach put in.

We put off family vacations because of all of the machinery Landon required to lug around.  There was no way we would've enjoyed ourselves anywhere while worrying about Landon's well-being.  We couldn't have the neighbor's kid come and watch our kids so that Braydon and I could have a date night.  I'm sure the neighbor's kid wouldn't know what to do with a trach (or if they had ever seen one).  We couldn't even have a sand box or go to the beach because, as we all know, sand gets everywhere and it's a trach patient's worst nightmare.  Very dangerous if it got in the airway!  Not to mention water!  Bath time is the only time Landon has gotten to play in the water.  And that was very restricted until he was old enough to understand the dangers.  That trach limited a lot of what we could do as a family.

But don't feel sorry for us.  We've grown to love Nebraska and staying here.  Landon is pretty much a local celebrity.  He's got friends everywhere.  Many of them we don't even know.  At the hospital.  At school.  In the neighborhood.  Everyone loves him once they get past his physical differences.  We've learned to find things to do that don't require sand or water.  Braydon and I have worked our "date nights" into a breakfast or lunch so that the nurses could be here to watch Landon.  We just kept telling ourselves that we would have the best family vacation any family could possibly have once he was safe without a trach.  We've made the best out of a bad situation BUT....

Now we don't have to worry about ANY of this!  LANDON IS NOW TRACH FREE!!!!!!!  YIPPY!!

We've known for a while that Landon was okay with breathing on his own without his trach.  We knew that from capping it off.  We were pretty sure but not positive that he was okay while he was sleeping from the "results" from his sleep study.  (I'm not sure if I shared that information on here, but Dr. Quinlan said what they got "looked good".)  So, on Sunday night I noticed that Landon's trach was out.  We had seen Sydney have a hold of it earlier in the day, but weren't sure if she had tugged on it.  We didn't even think to look.  He had done everything he normally does during the day...including a nap.  Braydon took him into the ER and they took a look at him.  He was doing so great that Dr. Quinlan and the ER doctor decided to just leave it out and monitor him overnight.

The next morning, without setting off any alarms all night and keeping the oxygen in his blood where it should be, it was safe to say he didn't need it.  We still have concerns about when Landon gets sick.  We do know that his tongue swells so it is something that we will have to keep a close eye on.  We have a machine at home to check the oxygen in his blood to make sure it is at a safe level.  Dr. Quinlan assures us that the first cold after any trach patient has been decannulated is rough because they have to learn how to manage everything going on in there.  We're hoping that Landon will do great, but only time will tell.

So as of now, we have no trach!  Landon has been doing so great without it and loves to show people.  We told Kim today when we went in for therapy and she was so excited.  We then had to sit down and rewrite pretty much every goal we had just made for him a couple weeks ago.  That's okay though.  I would rather have it this way.

Saying goodbye to an old friend :)

So, to the man at the store...."HE MADE IT!!!!"  :)  The next question is:  "What beach should we go to first??" Hahahaha!!