Hi Karen

There is a chance that your husbands trache blocked up.

I had to have a trache twice and was scared stiff. You definitely need to have something to get the nurses attention if you need it. I had a bell, but I also had for any emergencies an alarm pinned to my hospital gown that once I pulled the cord sent the nurses running in.

Which unfortunately I needed during my first operation - because the trache blocked up with bits of gunk- the doctors and nurses called it clots. Even though they were continually suctioning it - it did block up. Thankfully the nurse came running in and I was trying to explain that it was blocked and that is all I remember until I woke up after being 'brought back' by the cardiac machine and being surrounded by doctors and nurses.

I was moved to ICU where they kept me under close surveilance. My family were advised and were told that that is the first time they have heard of that happening IN 9 YEARS and following that they actually took that trache out and put a bigger one in so as it had a much lesser chance of blocking again.

Having told you the worse case scenario, the second time that I had a trache again for about 12 days I had no dramas. The hospital was well aware of what happened to me last time and this time they put the larger trache in.

Hopefully everything has gone really well, the swelling goes down quickly and he will be able to get the trache taken out asap.

Karen