You might take one look at that title and say Paul, my good man, you have gone off the deep end. But bear with me. And a fair warning: there is no merit or information to this post. It’s just me, talking about my beautiful daughter.
I was playing with her on the floor and tickling Namine, just listening to her laugh and loving it. So I had to get my thoughts out. You see, when Namine had her trach, we almost never saw her neck. She always had the ties on, keeping the trach in place. And Namine’s skin has always been sensitive; if any adhesive touches her, she gets a rash. Without fail. The ties as well – no matter how soft those Pediducks® ties may have been, they always gave Namine’s neck a rash.
Even after Namine was decannulated, she was not yet rid of the ties. A child with normal-ish skin would have been able to have that Band-Aid keeping the gauze over the stoma, just as they said to do at the hospital, but not Namine. It hurt her skin just have the bandage on, not to mention having to change it out twice a day. (The way it pulled at her skin was downright scary.) So until Namine’s stoma was sutured closed (the same day as her foot surgery), she still had to keep those ties on.
But that is all past, and it does not do to dwell on the past. Namine no longer has a stoma; even the scar is slowly fading. She’s had most of the stitches pulled out (so much for dissolving stitches), and she’ll probably have another pulling session soon. But what’s awesome is that she doesn’t dislike her neck being touched, as we feared. She loves it being tickled and kissed, as any cute toddler should. Never mind that she doesn’t toddle; her equivalent is scooting, and she does plenty of that!
When I think of all that she (and by extension, we) faced even just a year ago, it seems to me that Namine is nothing short of a miracle child. God has certainly set His guiding hand upon her.
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