<Tre's Updates>

We've missed a day of blogging because we couldn't connect to the wireless router at the Ronald McDonald House, so there's a lot to get into to.

Friday morning we called the hospital from our hotel room to see how Tre`s night was. The nurse on duty said that he had another good night, but that the E.N.T. doctors came in again early this morning when he was having another one of his coughing spells and again they were reluctant to discharge him. See now here is the problem. When Tre` is sick, he has coughing spells in the morning when he wakes up, whether he has the trach in or not. Now the E.N.T. doctors only see him first thing in the morning when he is having one of these episodes so it concerns them. We wanted to get to the hospital as soon as possible, but we had to find a place to stay. Our hotel didn't have any rooms left, so we called the Ronald McDonald House, and after getting their books in order they found that they did have a room available so we took it. We checked into the Ronald McDonald House and then we were off to the hospital to check on Tre`.

We had previously asked for a consult from Tre`s pulmonary doctors. When we got to his room, we met up with pulmonary who examined him and thought he looked great (keep in mind that Tre was not having his coughing spell). So pulmonary spoke to E.N.T. and this is how we found out about the confusion. E.N.T. thought that Tre`s coughing spells were the norm for him all day. They didn't realize that after he wakes up and gets it out of his system, that he is fine for the rest of the day. When pulmonary told them the results of their examination and E.N.T. learned that his coughing spells are only there when he first wakes up in the morning, they said that Tre` had passed his decannulation trial, and he could go home.

For the first time in his life, Tre` was breathing completely on his own, without the assistance of any medical device whatsoever. We are so proud of him. It's been a long fight, but no matter what any doctor ever said, we know our boy and we knew that he could do it.

So Friday night we left the CHOP, and as soon as we got Tre` into his stroller, he wouldn't stop talking. It was Elmo this, and Ernie that, and a little bit of his own made up language that no one has been able to translate yet.

We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House because we didn't want to be too far from the hospital the first night. Tre` got to watch Elmo in Grouchland, and then we went downstairs to play in the playroom. After that we all got ready for bed and just crashed for the rest of the night.

Saturday moring comes and we pack up all of the things, checkout of the Ronald McDonald House and head home with our now trach-less son. We still have a lot left to do. Just to name a few, we have to get him walking, chewing whole foods, and get the G-tube out. But for now, we're just happy that he won't shut up.