We had a great summer with Chase! Much better than last year :) He loved swimming and being outdoors! Hopefully next summer he'll be without his trach and we won't have to worry as much or be as careful in the pool. We were hoping he would lose the trach this fall, but when he got sick right before his surgery, they decided to cancel. We were really disappointed the surgery had to be rescheduled, but we were more concerned about Chase and getting him well. He ended up spiking a fever five days before the surgery, then lots of coughing and scary bloody secretions from his trach. We thought for sure he'd be better by his surgery day, especially after we started an antibiotic, but he just wasn't getting better. By day 6, his oxygen levels were dropping and we were having to give him extra oxygen, and he was still having bloody secretions. We decided to take him to the hospital, and they admitted him for a few days. It took over a week before he was back to his playful self. It had to be one of the longest weeks of my life! The doctor called the day after he was discharged from the hospital to say he had H1N1 (swine flu) - it took 5 days to get the viral studies back. By then he was on the mend, otherwise, had we found out sooner, I think we would have been especially paranoid. We think Chase got it from nurse Cathy, I got it from Chase, caretaker Scott got it from Chase, but luckily Chris managed to avoid it and stay well. Now we're at least immune for the winter :) We're so thankful he is better, and so so thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers!
They rescheduled the surgery for November 23rd. It seems like so far away. Now our goal is to have the trach out by Christmas - what a wonderful present that would be :) He's doing so well, that I think he'll be ready to lose the trach just weeks after the surgery, but that's just my guess. They haven't given us a timeline after the surgery. He is definitely ready to be done with it. He now tugs at his trach constantly, and has even pulled it out a several times.
Chase is all over the place now, even crawling up and down the stairs. He's walking along the coffee table, but hasn't taken any steps on his own yet. It won't be long though. He still isn't the best eater, but we've been experimenting with all sorts of things. We met with a dietician, and we're now giving him 3 bottles of Pediasure a day to help him gain more weight. He's definitely filling out and getting a little more meat on his bones now. He's up to about 17 lbs, so still pretty little but he's getting there.
Chase loves interacting and watching other kids, but just doesn't have the opportunity to do it enough. So we've been exploring pre-schools and/or programs for kids with special needs. Through a friend, we learned of The Children's Spot, which is affiliated with St. Lukes. We visited last week and were really impressed. They have different therapists (PT/OT/Speech) that work with the kiddos. Chase would go for a couple hours each day. We're on a waiting list, but it sounds like there may be an opening fairly soon. We're trying to figure out how we can do it with our work schedules because Chase would go from 9:30 to 11:30 each day. We're going to make it happen though because we really think it would help Chase and we're excited about it. When he's 2, we hope to get him into The Children's Learning Center. Gosh, that will be here before we know it!
Until then, we're enjoying every second with him.

From Summer '09