Postsurgery, days 3, 4 and a little bit of 5

TL;DR: Vic has moved out of the ICU and onto a "regular" floor. He also got his old trach tube replaced with a new trach tube that allows him to speak. (Although he is not supposed to, so don't everyone be calling here at once. 😉)

Full story:

Since last we met, Dr. Goddard (the surgeon who created his new tongue) came by to see him early Sunday morning during ENT rounds. That was an exciting appearance! She said, "You can't ask for it to look much better." She should know! She ordered them to increase his tube food (did I mention that they'd started his tube food?), and she wrote an order to move him out of the ICU.

Moving out of the ICU takes a super long time—they have to wait for a bed to become available—so we stayed in the ICU all day Sunday and Monday.

Monday, Nurse Kate told us the ENT team had ordered a new, smaller trach tube, and the next think you know, the respiratory therapist brought up a bunch of supplies—including a cuffless trach tube. Kate and the RT didn't know when they were going to put it in, but now it was ready when ENT was. Kate was kind enough to tell tell us a lot about trach tubes.

(Any errors in this description are mine.) The trach tube sits low on his neck, below the vocal cords. The tube he had in on Monday was cuffed.

My finger is pointing to the "cuff"—can you see it?
It's kind of like a balloon.

This cuff inflates and presses against the windpipe, which blocks the airway and keeps the vocal cords from working.

A cuffless trach does not have that "balloon" and thus allows speech. You just have to put your finger over the hole.

Going from a cuffed trach to a smaller, cuffless trach is a huge step.

It looked like we weren't going to get a bed Monday, so after a nice walk around the ICU ...

...we went to bed. I wasn't looking forward to another night in the ICU—so loud, bed so uncomfortable, so many interruptions for Vic (I sleep through most of them)—but the quality of his care there was unquestionably high, so that far outweighs any inconvenience.

It would have been nice to move during the day or even in the evening. But sure enough, 5 a.m. Tuesday, Nurse Kyle comes in and says, "GET OUT" (he might have been a little nicer than that), and by 6 a.m. we were on "the floor."

At 6:30, the ENT team came in for rounds. They did their usual—look at everything, do a Doppler (like a tiny ultrasound to check for blood flow), check all the wounds. But today, they also put in the new trach tube. The doctor put his finger over the hole and said, "Say your name," and Vic said "Vic"! So exciting!

He is now sleeping soundly, and I'm about to take a cat nap before I start my workday.

Lots of great stuff going on down here in Aurora, folks!