Up-date

Since Heidi's neck tuck, all has been well.  Although not using her trach-hole to breath in with, it is still useful though as we use it as a 'pressure relief valve' when she gets stressed....like at the vets or if she has had a particularly exciting game with her beagle BFF.  Then we pop a cotton bud in it and by opening it up she can catch her breath again.   Although she is using her normal airways, she does still struggle when excited and still gets bouts of reverse sneezing and wheezing. 

I have managed to overcome my initial panicky reactions to these little breathing upsets, which I think has helped Heidi to get over them much quicker too.  I also never leave home without a good handful of trusty cotton buds.

We are still cleaning her twice daily, and it is during cleanings that we use a bud to maintain the trach-hole.  We may still need to go back to having a flesh-tunnel one day, and don't want the hole to heal up too small, so give it a good poking and stretch twice a day.  This also keeps Heidi used to our messing about with it, so when we need to help her catch her breath its no big deal for her. 

She is however still very much a delicate puggy, who's walks are much much shorter and rarer than she or I would like, and who has had many a fun game with her beagle BFF cut short due to her breathing difficulties, but none of this seems to affect her love of life.  In fact, ignoring my strict rules about being sensible seems to be her favourite game!




Bad times for Heidi:

Heidi has yet again, had more trouble.  The last stoma that was put in during another emergency (see 'stoma-drama'....was again causing her respiratory distress:  We had another two 'blue-tongue' near death moments within a week.  We came to the decision to take her back, and see if this was the end.  I was not going to let my happy little dog suffocate in the night when we could give her a peaceful end.  We took all our latest stoma designs, including modified ones where we had trimmed the flanges and all the old ones, and asked them to make this our final attempt with a stoma.  We wanted Heidi to be stable, and happy.  To be honest, if Heidi wasn't such a cheerful little soul in between the scary moments, I would have ended this a long time ago. 
They tried in one of our stoma designs, and it seemed to be working, but very soon it was causing more distress.  We said goodbye a few times thinking it was going to be the last time, and even dug her grave as things seemed to be heading in that direction with almost no hope.   It was decided that she have a neck tuck, it had been an option all along, but we hated the idea of more cutting and stitches....but this was now our only choice.  Hopefully this would hold the skin tight enough for the hole in her neck to just stay open. 
To cut a long story short, the neck tuck failed.... However, the gradual reduction of dependence on the stoma meant her normal airways could take over a bit more.  Now she is stable, but struggles for breath a lot more than she ever did before the stoma.  We have to keep her very calm, no more walks, and we sometimes have to hold the hole open with a cotton bud to let her catch her breath. 

We are now torn between letting her just carry on like this, or have another go at a stoma.  We are frustrated that we seemed so very close to getting a stoma just right for her.  However, I think she has had enough operations:  As long as she is stable, and happy we will see how it goes. 

Please also see the new link to 'Sunnys Video Story'.  This is a lady who's dog has just had the very first flesh-tunnel type stoma fitted at the specialist vets we go to, and we are thrilled that our idea is helping other dogs:  Sunny seems to be doing so well with his stoma, and her guide to cleaning is brilliant. 

Update.

We've had a bad few days with Heidi:  Please see my 'Stoma-Drama' page for the whole story. 

New Stoma!

We have just had Heidi fitted with her new stoma!  Please look at my new page, 'Stoma #2!' to read all about the new stoma and see her with it in.  Although its only been a few days, they have been so wonderfull compared to how we had been living, we are hopefull that this is the end of all the nasy operations for Heidi, and we can at last let her be a dog again, because although its been a massive strain for us, it must have been worse for her. 
xxx

Doing well!

After a bit of a wobble with her stoma in the last month, we went to the vets to see if he could check if she had a chest infection.  She had been bringing up a lot more mucus that we were happy with, and this was causing blockages and making day-to-day life revolve around cleanings.  She was put on antibiotics as she had a noisy chest. 
Her mucus problem has since 'dried up'. However, with winter coming up on us, and central heating being tentatively turned on in the evenings, we want to avoid her getting too dry, so we are going to buy some humidifiers, and see if these help any. 
The stoma has had a fresh bout of healing, and the surrounding skin is tightening up nicely, which has made the stoma much more secure.  We are now beginning to hope that at some point in the future we can have the stitches removed as these do cause Heidi some itching.
We have also kept up with the nebulising, which helps her clear her airways, as now she cannot cough as she would have once done.  (Air simply comes out of her hole, and she can no longer give a good hearty cough).
All in all though, Heidi is doing very well indeed.

3 month check up!

Today Heidi has had her trach for 3 months, and we went back to the specialists where she had it done, for a check up.  All is fine, the skin is still a little loose around the stoma, but everything seems to be going according to plan!   Little Heidi was the first to have this flesh-tunnel stoma fitted, there is nothing to compare her healing process to. 
The last week has had a few set backs however:  Being a pug she has a lot of spare skin about the neck area, this skin around the stoma has at times 'closed' over the hole, and with the presence of glue like mucus this made breathing very tricky for Heidi!   We had to keep a very close eye on her, however within a few days she had learnt to cough her way out of the situation.  We also think that perhaps some swelling may have occured, as she soon got over these wheezing attacks.