Medical Terms

Trach

A trach is plastic tube that is into the trachea. When Nick was in the NICU he was on nasal canula for about 3 weeks after which he developed pulmonary hypertension which caused him to have to be reintubated. We realized that Nick was not going to get out of the hospital unless he was going to go home on a vent. We elected to have a trach put in. The surgeon cut a small incision in the front of his neck where the trach goes in. Nick breaths through the trach instead of his mouth or nose. This allows us to connect a ventilator to him without him having the discomfort of tubes going down this throat. With Nick no longer on the ventilator we are hoping that it will not be needed much longer.

Gbutton

When Nick was only 2 days old he had surgery to fix his ductus (artery that bypasses the lungs when the baby is in the uterus). The clamps used to close of his ductus unfortunately also closed off his esoughagus. In order to get nutrition the doctors inserted a gtube (a tube straight into his stomach) to allow us to feed him even though his esoughagus was clamped off. Towards the end of our stay at the NICU we had a gbutton put in. A gbutton allows us to attach a feeding tube and detach it. By having a gbutton Nick is more mobile. We can just connect the feeding tube when we are ready to feed him and disconnect it when he is not eating. When Nick was about 6 pounds or so the blockage in his esoughagus cleared up. Unfortunately Nick is still having trouble learning to eat, so the gbutton may be around for a while longer.

O-Ring

Now that Nick is no longer in need a ventilator he has an O-Ring. The O-Ring allows him to get some supplemental oxygen mixed with room air. But he does all of the work of breathing on his own.