1st March and a great ball of "snot"

Its the 1st March so Lyall will be having reconstructive surgery this month!! Gulp!!

We took Lyall to the Valley Gardens in Harrogate today and he had a play in the playground then kicked his ball around the park. It was quite chilly which he always struggles with as the cold air blows straight into his airway through his trachy even when its covered with a bib. He suddenly started to get very whistlely and agitated so we stopped to give him a suction. His tube was almost blocked and we had to put some saline down to loosen up the secretions. He did a big cough and an enormous secretiony plug (snot ball) flew out and he smiled as he could now breathe again. We also breathed a sigh of relief as the next step would have been an emergency tube change which although is something we do fairly regularly isn't something you particularly want to do on a park bench with a load of passers-by gawping at you!

Apologies if anyone finds this a bit yucky but this is our daily reality. Lyall relies on that tube to breathe and we have to be constantly vigilant to make sure it is clear. Blocked tubes can happen quickly with no warning and its scary.

We can never go anywhere without his suction machine and he can't ever be so far away from us that we can't hear his breathing. Lyall can tell us by tapping on his trachy if he thinks he needs a suction and "bag" is one of his very clear words as he will sometimes check we have it with us.

Despite our fears about the surgery its hard not to imagine life without the trachy, without the "bag" and without the feeling that you are always one snot ball away from an emergency!