Hurrah!
The day has finally arrived!
After months upon months upon months of administering oxygen to my little boy, he is now officially off it. He's now breathing normal oxygen like the rest of us.
Never has it annoyed him though, ever. He sees the plastic tubing and laughs.. YEAH! My toy I get to play with and suck on! He loves it.
Even every morning when we ripped off his bandages that stuck the nasal specs to his face, he never cried. He's never cried once. I can never remember an occasion where he has..
Imagine having tubes up your nose stuck on with the stickiest sticky tape, only to have someone else rip it off your face in the morning. Ouchies!
He's such a trooper and we are very glad to have to finally, officially, off.
He doesn't care though, he's had it off for ages anyway!
Shhhhhh..... don't tell anyone
Yeah, I took it off weeks ago. Naughty Tork! But, Father knows best. The doctors are not always around. It was taking months and months for a doctors appointment. My boy was ripping it off his face himself, he was wrapping it around his neck and the air flow was so low, it was only coming out in spurts and actually restricting his breathing, especially the days he had a cold.
Nup.. off it went. I wasn't having him strangle himself one night, now that he moves around much easier the older he gets. That was our biggest worry.
He now sleeps the quietest he ever has. Less snoring, less noise, more poking him whilst he sleeps to see if he's still breathing, more rocking him back to sleep after he's been poked.
:-)
But, I've only taken him off his oxygen until I was 100% certain. After his oximetry test, I took it off. Having done as many oxygen test as I have fingers (fyi - I have ten fingers) I know these tests backwards.
His test was fantastic on room air, so off it went. Dad knows best!
I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone doing this though that might be in the same situation as us, but it is something worthwhile bringing up with your paediatrician or GP if you're waiting for doctors to just say the word...
The world is our Oyster
As you might be aware, no childcare would take a child that is oxygen dependant. As he no longer is, childcare is on the cards for us to think about. I'd rather not do it though. I love my wife looking after him all day, but it definitely is making her stir crazy. At least now it is something we have the choice to consider.
We also can go out at night without returning home! We can do overnight stays in hotels with our boy, let him sleep at our friend's house whilst we have a few more longer chats instead of coming home to attach that darned oxygen tank.
No more, being tied down, to put it ironically.
And all in time for our boy's 1st birthday. Not too bad of a coincidence! So we are definitely looking forward to that :-)
Shit... turned 30, almost have a one year old.
When the crap did that happen!?!?!?
- tork
