It's Snot Been Fun Around Here

FINALLY my cough is a little better. Not 100% gone, but better. I can function. And sleep. Except Ainsley caught whatever this terrible thing is and was not well enough to start school this week.

The worst thing about trachs is that the stuff that you normally cough up instead goes up into the trach tube and if the person coughs hard enough "trach snot" goes flying everywhere! All parents deal with snot, but when a trached child gets sick the snot is on a whole other level. Imagine your child sneezing a huge super-snotty sneeze all over your face. Unfortunately, with a trach, that happens regularly to me.  Normally you use a suction machine to suck the gunk out of the trach but it often comes out of nowhere with no warning what-so-ever and there is no way you can be quick enough on the draw. I hate it when Ainsley is sick. And this virus has been especially bad. Her blood oxygen levels have been low at night and she's needed a lot of care during the night which interrupts our sleep. Steve and I take turns but we still wake up constantly. She has not been able to wear her cap and not been willing to eat even a little orally and that has been very discouraging about what that means for any chance of a trach free future.

Now that she is doing better Monday should be her first day back. We are excited! And ready! I can't wait to try out her new communication device. I took the Vantage back to Seattle Friday. A huge thank you to Ananda for letting us borrow it for an extra 6 months so Ainsley didn't go without.

Evie had her first first soccer game last Saturday. Adrian's was cancelled. We have soccer games every Saturday from now until Halloween. A soccer mom is something I never thought I'd be. Along with a lot of other things I never thought I'd be.  Here are our first soccer pictures. Probably there will be many to follow.

Since the team didn't have their uniforms for Evie's first game I'll just post photos from their second game. Evie's number is #1. I don't know if that is good luck or not.

I love that Evie is a ballerina who is getting a chance to play athlete. It is so good for her!

Another photographer and I swapped lenses. I was thrilled to try out his zoom which I used to shoot this picture. And he got to try out my L series lens, which in my opinion isn't all that fantastic.

Of course now I want a new lens. But since we just had to spend thousands of dollars we don't have on maintaining a few of the hundreds of trees on the property of our new house I don't think camera gear is in the budget.

I love this tradition of the opposing teams congratulating each other for playing well.  Little did I know when I signed Evie up to play with this team that there was another team with girls from her school and she played them here. So some of these girls in pink are her friends from school.

Whatever this tradition is it looks like London Bridge to me. 

This is what Adrian does when I ask him to smile for the camera. So instead I'm forced to take candids.

Adrian's in the middle about to kick the ball. Of course, for their first game (since their real first game was rescheduled) they were playing orange and they are orange so our lucky team had to wear blue "pennies" and that was a big ole pain in the you know what (imagine 8 year old kids having to take their "shirts" off to hand it over to the replacement player) and it kind of ruined my pictures.

Adrian playing goalie. The goalie has to wear a different shirt. Boy that confused us. The other team forgot their goalie shirt so they were wearing a blue pennie so it looked like their goalie was our goalie. Good grief, like I'm not already confused enough!!!

Ainsley has been enjoying the games. Ahhh, she's so CUTE! Though I can see that when the weather changes things are going to be difficult. A muddy field and a wheelchair is not a good combination. Plus wind, rain and cold aren't so good for kids with trachs.

Stay tuned for news of how Ainsley's first day of school goes.