We made a choice to trach Mighty Z when she was was 4 months
old. It was a hard decision to make, and we hated having to make it.
Like many medical procedures, the trach surgery went fine; it
was in post-op that the trach-road got bumpy. Within 3 hours of surgery, Mighty
Z pulled out her trach and coded. After first, the NICU nurse thought that the
sensors were not working and that the monitors were just going crazy for no
reason. When she realized some minutes later that Mighty Z was actually coding,
she proceeded to ambu (4-month old!) Mighty Z with an adult ambu bag. The
nurse's usage of the adult ambu bag blew Mighty Z's left lung. Same
notwithstanding, they finally managed to got enough oxygen to her to
resuscitate her, (though we later found out that the delay in resuscitation
caused Mighty Z to sustain eye damage -- Grrrr).
After Mighty Z was resusitated, the on-call ENT rushed her into
emergency surgery to redo the trach. In the rushed second surgery, the doctor
did what he had to do -- he cut below the first stoma to open a second airway,
and then he sutured her skin below the trach to her skin above the trach.
Four years later, when we decannulated Mighty Z, her trach scar
was very (very) angry-looking. I wanted that bad-boy to go away, so for years
we tried every kind of cream /snake-oil we could find on the
market. Sadly, all were to no avail. Recently, however, I tried a cream recommended by my sister-in-law on Mighty Z's trach scar. Although
skeptical that the cream, would achieve results where so many others
had failed, I tried it -- (mostly because I love and support my sweet
sister-in-law, and I didn't want to dismiss her suggestion without giving her
recommendation a try). Happy day! I'm so glad I did! Below are before and after
photos after 7 days of using the cream -- (photos taken at the same time of day
and in the same location). Is it me, or does the scar look noticeably better? I
can’t wait to see what happens after 30 days. In the meantime, Mighty Z has
tons of scars all over her body, and I am going to try the stuff out on every
one.
********
Unsightly trach-scar notwithstanding, looking back now, I wish
we had hadn't hesitated as long as we did to trach Mighty Z. If she had been
trached earlier it would have prevented 4 months of intubation (the duration of
which caused damage to her vocal cords), and I could have brought her home
sooner. Last but not least, it was only after Mighty Z's trach surgery that I
was able to see her whole face, and for me, finally seeing Mighty Z's beautiful
face without the clutter of ng tubes and all the intubation mess that goes with
it was amazing. Even if that trach scar never completely fades and I end up owning more cream than any
other mom on the planet, I'll never forget the joy of seeing my baby's face and
bringing her home where she belongs.
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