Day 436 - Ballard Too Tight, Giving Us a Fight

Friday, March 11th, 2022

We did the weekly trach change last night and we had the hardest time getting the trach apart from the ballard. Mom reached out to the Trach Moms FB group to see if there were any tip and tricks to get it apart. The resounding answer was that we were out of luck but we could try a hammer to break the ballard off. Well that didn't work, so we had to throw it away.

Why did this get so tight? It seems as though the ballards are slightly different sizes allowing some to go further on the trach than others. In the close up photo below, you can see the cracks in the ballard, which is the clear plastic piece. Normal you can use the "wedge" or some people call it the "tooth" to wiggle the two apart. But not this time! There was no way to get it in there. In the last photo with James you can see how the ballard doesn't go all the way up to the trach; there is a space. That is how it's supposed to be.

So unfortunately we had to toss this trach. We did get to use this one 4 times. Thank goodness Mom was able to get some extras (and only pay shipping) from Trach Moms via FB. Having this standard size makes such a difference in availability!

James changing the settings on his Amazon Fire

We are working on straighening out his spine. He tends to arch to the right.

P.S. Do you follow James' journey? James would love to read an email from you. His email is JamesWestonAbramowitz@gmail.com. How heartwarming for him to receive these and fun for you to get a response from him in like 10 years...