The best guess we have as to what happened before Christmas is a combination of a simple cold turned vicious and some additional collapse of his trachea. AJs trach is now yet another cm longer, and thus far he hasn’t had another episode. Longer trachs mean a higher risk for mucus plugging it up — where most normal people can cough to clear their throats, AJ can’t. Which is why we carry around a noisy auction machine to help do it for him. He can often push it up a good portion of the way with coughing, but the longer the trach is that we put in the more he has to push.
We’ve yet to hear back from CHOP on his reconstruction surgery, and are also awaiting a cardiac cath in January where we are hoping to repair some narrowing in his aortic arch. And we have a slew of appointments through the end of the year into next.
Never a dull moment!
In less boring medical news? AJ cracked through his first two teeth before Christmas. True to AJ fashion he can’t do anything normally, so he has two little vampire fangs poking through. 😂