Blood thinner

If your doc keeps your dad on blood thinners then there will be a problem with the blood not clotting and too much bleeding when he makes the incision for the trache. Also your dad cant go into surgery with feeding tubes etc. everyone has to fast before going into surgery, Unless its an emergancy I guess. Your dad will or should go back onto the blood thinners and the feeding tube once out of surgery.

Trust me I was on the vent and received a trache and the last thing on my mind was worrying about eating. He’ll most likely have a feeding tube.

ss,

Your dad will be on the feeding tube as long as he is has a trach. The breathing tube enters the throat and into the lungs. Once he gets off the vent and the trach is removed, they will have to check certain things like gag reflexes etc and he will then slowly be introduced to liquids and very soft solids.

Forgot to say ….. feeding tube and trach dont have a time frame, it has all to do with when your dads body starts to recover in its own time.

Ali is right there isn’t a time frame for the feeding tube. I remember when I had the feeding tube I started out eating items with food coloring on it ie., ice chips, oatmeal, and jello, and SMALL amounts of water… the nurses and doctors would do some-type of suction technique to make sure I was swallowing correctly.

i started eating while i still had the trach … in my case the removal of the trachy was delayed because of an infection. The speech pathologist made sure i was able to swallow correctly (they colour the food or liquid so they can see if it is being suctioned out of the lungs) and then i started on soft foods and gradually worked up to chopped foods. The feeding tube didnt come out until they were satisfied i was eating enough solid foods. Luckily the hospital food wasnt too bad. The trachy came out after 3 weeks when it had healed sufficiently.

I know there are no hard and fast time frames but i was given the following indications:

intubation – 1-2 weeks. If possible they like to get the tube out to prevent damage to vocal cords
trachy – initial tube 1-2 weeks. If likely to be more long term, they will normally replace with a tube that has a removable inner that can be replaced, to prevent blockages.

they were talking about replacing my trachy after 2 weeks but that was delayed because of the infection, which i was glad about as apparently they just pull the old one out and insert the new one :0 In the end they just took it out altogether which really wasnt too bad at all, didnt feel a thing.

As for the blood thinners, i was on heparin injections until i was up and walking again and finally convinced them they were an unnecessary evil. I dont remember them stopping them at all which seems a bit strange now that i think of it.

I do think that they are leaving the intubation tube in a little long. As said by montanas mom, they do try and get it out after the first week, possibly 2 because it really can damage vocal cords – im just wondering why they are leaving it in so long? Not sure exactly how Diabetes will affect your fathers healing, Is your dad Type I or II?

i hope all goes well for the trachy and not delayed again. As most people have said, it is so much better than being intubated for so many reasons. And from what i have heard it is a relatively minor procedure. I had mine in surgery but somone else had theirs done in ICU (all the nurses went and watched!) I remember waking up with a shocking headache but they gave me some painkillers and that was fine. It didnt hurt afterwards or anything.

Please keep us updated on how he is going