Happy 2008!!

Happy New Year!

We rang in 2008 at home and had a quiet New Year's.

As for Daniel, he "partied" it up in his jump-a-roo......

Happy New Year once again and we hope that your year is happy and healthy!!

Trach Updates

Daniel's Trach status as of December 14:

Unfortunately we did not get a Christmas miracle regarding Daniel's trach. There has been no improvements in Daniel's vocal cords and his Dr. does not think the nerve will come back. So we are looking into Drs and facilities that are the leaders in airway reconstruction. Our first step will be at Cincinnati Children's Hospital on January 7-10, 2008. We are also waiting to get an appointment at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for an additional evaluation. If all goes well we will be able to do vocal cord surgery in early June with hopes that Daniel's trach can come out sometime in 2008. We will keep you posted.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about tracheostomy, the following website is filled with terrific information: http://www.tracheostomy.com/.

For those interested in information regarding vocal cord paralysis (VCP), the following websites are pretty decent:
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/vocalparal.htm
http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/throat/Vocal-Cord-Paralysis.cfm

And for those interested in information regarding TE Fistulas, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracheoesophageal_fistula
http://www.eatef.org/index.html

Happy Holidays and Happy 2008!!

As the end of 2007 comes to a rapid close we thought we start a "diary" for our friends and family since 2008 is set to be a very interesting year for us. Daniel survived his first Christmas and was no worst for the weary. Though he did not get the "Santa" concept he certainly enjoyed the wrapping paper. We think he might have a future position as one of Santa's elfs given this photo...

Or maybe not....

Daniel is topping out at 14 pounds and 5 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long (as of 12/28/07) and is grabbing everything in sight. He is sitting up by himself but does still have a tendency to be a little webble-wobbly every now and then.

We are proud to let you know that we are bringing him up right and have started exposing him to Jimmy Buffett. Looks like he already can't get enough of it........

We are just so proud!!!!

We are off to Cincinnati Children's Hospital next Saturday (01/05/08) for a week of tests and evaluations regarding Daniel's airway. Hopefully by the end of that week we will have better idea of how long Daniel will have his trach and what we need to do to fix his airway and make him "trach-free." We will let you know more as soon as we know. (http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/)


On that note, Happy New Year! We hope that it is a happy and healthy one for all of you.