Q & A

Q. I was wondering if Jaxson will be going to school just for the social interaction experience, or will he actually be able to learn things too? Forgive my ignorance, but I have no clue as to his level or ability to learn things.
Not ignorance at all! In Utah, Jax was on home and hospital. The school came out to our house a measly 1 hour a month. Ya, you can learn a lot in that time ;) He had private OT and PT, and since that is really what Jax needs, I could have cared less about school. In this school, there aren't many papers and pencils, there are lots of different chairs, swings, and walking devices. Your right, he won't be learning his ABC's or anything like that. One big reason I want to at least try it, is because for Jax, its a change of scenery. Different people to interact with. It hurts to say this sometimes, but Jax is so good, that when I'm busy cleaning or what not during the day, he just hangs out on the floor. He doesn't cry, he doesn't need a lot of attention. He's very content playing with his tubes on his blankie. In school, he'll have people that will be doing tons of therapy with him. And its amazing what we find these severely delayed kids doing when they get to go to school! So for that reason, we have to at least try it! If he gets really sick, then we may have to back out. But we need to at least try!

Q.How much experience does the school have with trach children?
Honestly, they didn't give me any kind of history. But I didn't see a single child with a trach. They did tell me there were two children with trachs at the school right now. One is ready to be decannulated, so doesn't need much watching. The LVN at the school didn't make me feel much better because her knowledge of suction catheters left something to be desired!

Q.Thank you! Informative for sure... what about swimming though? Like submersion in water
When we were talking about traching Jax, and I was worried about how much it would change our lives, I specifically remember the RT telling us people even swim with trachs. We take Jax in the water, but he can't be submerged. You can submerge a trach if you put a cap over it. So the child has to be able to tolerate having a cap over their trach. Jax would never tolerate that, so he can't be submerged. But that's ok, because he'd aspirate the pool water anyway!

I'm working on an autism post. Its been far too long since I've talked about the autism in our family!