Our Little Boy is Back
The culture came back and as we suspected, Sam had tracheitis...again. There were two different organisms growing. It would honestly take a microbiology lesson to truly understand some of Sam's sickness'. Unfortunately, I've had a crash course in a lot of subjects I'd rather not and wasn't planning to the last three years.
For those of you who care, I found a website that gives a good explanation of tracheitis. Keep in mind, this explanation is considering a child without a tracheostomy. It sounds pretty scary and it is, but because we already know Sam is susceptible, we can treat it quickly.
Tracheitis is an infection of the trachea (breathing tube or windpipe) that is caused by bacteria. Tracheitis most frequently occurs in small children and can make it very difficult to breathe.
Tracheitis is rare, only occurring in about 1 in 1,000,000 cases and is suspected to be more prevalent in boys than girls.
Aggressive treatment early on is important in properly managing tracheitis.
Initial treatments will usually require admission into an intensive care unit where your child can be observed and intubated (breathing tube placed) if necessary. Having a breathing tube will also allow the ICU nurses to perform aggressive airway suctioning to keep your child breathing as comfortably as possible. [1]
It's virtually impossible for a child without a tracheostomy to get tracheitis. Why is Sam so susceptible to tracheitis? Because he has a direct access to his airway, his tracheostomy or breathing tube. We have our noses, sinuses, and the rest of our anatomy leading to our trachea to filter out the bad bacteria. When it tries to get stuck, we sneeze it back out. We have lots of natural mechanisms to fight this stuff off. Sam does not.
Sam was a pretty sick little boy this past week. Tracheitis is what Sam was hospitalized for back in September. If we would have brought him in this past week, chances are very high, he would have been admitted. We did everything possible to keep him out of the hospital, because we know he can catch far greater illnesses or what we call super bugs there than at home. We also didn't want to disrupt any of our travel plans coming up. That would have been a big bummer. In our last stay, Sam's Pediatric Intensivist explained how, often the parents of complex kids have a very different view of a sick kid. What a generally healthy child would be hospitalized for, a complex child is cared for at home so when they do end up in the hospital, they are very sick kiddos.
Boy, oh boy, are we thankful for our home care nurses and the other people who help out when Sam gets sick. Our home care nurses and support system are what help keep us sane.
We are so happy Sam kicked this and we were able to keep him out of the hospital. Thank you for praying for our sweet little boy.
We leave in less than a week for Cincinnati! Sam's pulmonologist has put him on "lock down" until after we get back. This means no going school and no going to therapy. Thankfully, he's a very easily entertained little boy.
We are praying for answers in Cincinnati so we can hopefully get rid of Sam's tracheostomy, aka trach!
Sources:
Hayes, Kristin. “Do You Know the Differences Between Croup and Tracheitis?” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, 15 Nov. 2019, www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-tracheitis-1192023.
