Passing It Around

Looks like Ammon and I are into sharing stuff -- like pneumonia. He now has it but it's not bad enough at this point to do breathing treatments. He is on two antibiotics and I have to start doing chest compressions on him to help him get the junk out, but he hasn't had any fevers -- just junky stuff that he has to cough out. He missed school yesterday and today but gets to go back tomorrow.

We took him up to see Dr. Pfeffer, his pulmonologist, to follow up after his sleep study. We are very impressed with her. She said that she wasn't sure it was a good thing that we removed his trach. Jim and I quickly voted that out and after discussing it, she agreed. So Ammon will have to use a bi-pap for the rest of his life to help him breathe more easily at night. The sleep study showed lots of concerns. We are fine about using a bi-pap machine. It's portable and doesn't require a nurse in his room and he doesn't need to be on it during the day. I'm glad that Jim insisted on getting this study done and that we have some things we can do to help Ammon have more comfortable nights.

On a side note, Ammon happened to tell Dr. Pfeffer that he really liked using a cough assist machine when he was in the hospital and that he wished he could get one through e-bay. She is going to see if our insurance or Medicaid will let us get one because it really does help him cough when he runs out of energy. I don't want it here, but we'll see what happens. Most kids really hate the machine and how it makes them feel. Ammon's final words to the doctor were, "I'm just weird." Yup..... sometimes he is .... a cough assist machine. Good grief.