My mom had her trach put in on Friday. I saw her Friday afternoon and she looks so good compared to where we started. No more tubes coming out of her mouth, nose and head. She was still sleeping and they nurses were waiting for the anesthesia to wear off and than they would start decreasing her pain and sedation meds.
I just talked with her nurse this morning and she said that mom was on a trach mask from 5pm to midnight last night. The trach mask is when they take her off her ventilator and let her breathe on her own. They have to retrain/restore her muscles since she has been on the ventilator for so long. They will switch her back and forth off of the mask and the ventilator. Letting her rest for a while in between. Who knew breathing was so hard. She is not following commands though. She was before her jaw surgery so I know it is in there somewhere. She just has to find it again. She does open her eyes when you say her name and she looks at you.
Seth came last night from Colorado and Sy came from Salt Lake. Once Sy picked Seth up from the airport all of my brothers went to see my mom and Sy said that mom started to cry when she saw Seth and that she was almost crying when they left for the night. It is so hard to leave her there by herself. She gets lots of visitors but since she can't talk we don't know how much she understands and what she's thinking.
We just keep praying for her. That's about all we can do.