I'm delighted that my dictation software still recognizes his voice even with the tracheotomy and ventilator!
Yes, I am at home now, after almost 2 weeks in the hospital. Spending days lying in a hospital bed , both paralyzed and mute, wasn't much fun. Learning to talk again was a challenge -- there's at least three methods you have to try. Last night was my first night at home. Initially my tidal volumes were about 300 or 400 mL. Now they have improved and are often over 500 mL. This morning though, all of a sudden, I could not get over 100 mL and the alarm kept going off -- frightening. We checked all the hoses, tried removing and reattaching, nothing worked. Then we suctioned -- winner, winner, chicken dinner! Suctioning did the trick. I had another episode just like that a couple hours later. Of course this time we went straight to suctioning and all was good!
They say the inner canula should be changed daily. But, they did not change it daily in the hospital. Daily seems excessive to me... but what do I know?
Joel who?