ENT

Whoo Hoo!!! Autumn had her last dr. appt. for the week. These appts. sure do get old quickly. At the end of the year I need to add up how many appts. we had just in one year. Sheesh! Her ENT appt. was fast like always. I'm not really sure why he have those appts anyways? We walked in and they asked if everything was going fine. We told them about Autumn having some thick, yellow secretions the past couple of days and a low grade temp. last night. They asked if she had a stuffy nose and cough as well. Yes, she has. So, they did a scope down her trach...where they put this wire with a camera on it to see how it looks. They said it looks like it's just a cold and to do Xopenex treatments regularly for a week to break up the secretions and she should be fine. We always meet with a different doctor each time we go and never with the actual dr. that did Autumn's tracheostomy surgery. I guess since she only has a trach because of central apnea issues they don't have much they need to do with her but to just make sure we are not having issues and that her trach still looks good. They said her current trach size should last her for at least another year so we are all good there. They also are going to be ordering us another trach. Our DME company said we could only get 2 every 6 months but 1 of the 2 they ordered us was the wrong type so we have had the same trachs since Autumn first got hers in November of last year. So, both her pulmonlogist and ENT will be sending our DME company info about us needing more so maybe this will get them on the ball to getting them for us. Also, Autumn's concentrator has stopped working on us. It's the machine that converts room air into oxygen for her vent so we do not have to use our O2 tanks. Good thing she is only on oxygen when she has desats because I think we have just enough oxygen in her tanks to last through the weekend if she needs any. Our pulmo was also not happy that our DME company has not given us a back up vent to have at home. I asked them about it and they told me as long as they have one in the office that it was fine...what if we were in Dallas though or on the road and her vent breaks on us? So, hopefully we will also be getting that next week also. So, our appt. week is over and we will head back home in the morning. Yea!

James and I also took time to scout out Rowlett, Texas to see if that would be a place we would like to move to. The traveling back and forth is just getting to be too much and James is ready for a job change. So, I think more than likely we will be planning to move to the area next summer. James will need to start hunting for a job and I will have to start figuring out how to change over nursing and DME companies. Rowlett is right off the lake and it was making me sick seeing all the houses with the lake in their backyard...so jealous!!! We are still praying about it all and seeing what God has planned for us. We know these appts. will continue to be frequent as long as Autumn has the trach and we are going to be running out of donated money to help with the expense of traveling and James missing work so we just feel it's time for that change. I do not want to leave my parents though and just when I finally got a day nurse I love and trust it's hard to want to do without or try to find someone I can actually trust. It's all going to be in God's hands though and we just have trust in Him to provide. So, please be in prayer with us about this life-changing decision we will have to make. It would be so awesome to be able to drive 30 mins-1 hour to Autumn's dr appts. and be back in our own beds the same day. ;)