My mom had that surgery almost exactly April 27 2015 for recurrent cancer. It was terrifying! OMG, I'm not going to lie. They predicted she wouldn't need to go home with the trache but she did. That was the scary part for all of us. But my sister and I were talking the other other day and she was all, "remember how scared we were of the trach. Hah!" The Trach stayed in for 4-6 weeks to protect her airway as swelling went down. Then it came out and now we're all, "remember when that was scary?" It was, seriously. But we were given a trache care class at the hospital and we were encouraged to ask the nurses to help us practice while still in patient and after the first few times at home no big deal, really.

As for the rest of it there were big changes. And her life has changed since the surgery. But not as much as I would have feared. She just went on a trip to North Carolina to visit one of my sisters and is planning a trip to Norway for this summer.