Being At Home

My idea of how the blog will work is to provide 'you guys' with an insight into what's gone on before and where we are now with regard to living with Alfie and obviously his trachy.



We've been lucky to have the support of both our Mum's, my Dad who was battling his own demons at the time, and some very good friends throughout the time in hospital and now that we are home. So to the Holden's (Kate in particular who along with Mum have done a special CPR course and a tube change which I wouldn't wish on anybody so they can baby sit for us) and Nic and Tim you have our deepest gratitude (especially for feeding us so well when we were in hospital and sneaking in the odd bottle!). Additionally we have a massive network of people who have sent their best wishes and support, again your thoughts have helped us through this.



I also want to thank Catherine for encouraging Sarah to start this blog (after writng her own about her precious boy Reuben in such a beautiful fashion), although I now struggle to get her off the laptop (look who's talking!). Good luck with everything.



Right enough of the serious stuff, now for some anecdotes......



One of the main impacts of Alfie's tracheostomy is the constant need for suctioning to ensure that the tube doesn't become blocked by secretions. This means that we get through a very large number of suction catheters, these are packaged in boxes of 100.

I have to say that these boxes look horrible and are too much of a reminder of the medical side of the situation. Hence.......

Those that know Sarah will appreciate this....within days of getting home we were the proud owners of two new tall vases to store these catheters in, one for upstairs, one for down!

And little baskets to drop the used catheters in as I couldn't bear them being droped on the floor!

We also have two baby boxes, you know the ones from Mothercare that hold bathing stuff, creams etc.? Our second one has tapes (these hold in his trachy and have to be changed every day), dressing, saline solution, granuloma cream, swedish noses, spare trachys and various other fun bits and pieces. Our coffee table has become a changing station, not for nappies but tapes and tubes! We also have to have a cot in the living room as he can't be put down to sleep too far away from us because he can't cry and could have problems with his tube. It had to be a cot when we looked at him a couple of weeks ago in his moses basket and realised both head and feet were touching the ends! He's a big lad :-) Of course the cot is colour coordinated with the front room. Of course!

The other thing I have to thank my mum for is her great line in Trachy wear. Because of the trachy tube, clothes are not easy to get as they are either too tight on the neck or could block the tube and effectively smother Alfie so my mum has been binding little Vs that she has cut into round necks with matching ribbon so he can still wear the lovely clothes he has been bought.