Vivian Landon
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Our daughter Vivian has a trach. She was born October 15, 2003, at 26 weeks gestation, 2nd baby in a set of triplets, Eric Jr. was first, and Levi, Eric's Identical twin was third. Vivian and Levi weighed 2 pounds, 3 1/2 oz, Eric weighed 1 pound, 13 1/2 oz. The babies were born early because our firstborn (Eric Jr.) pushed his foot through my cervix and prolapsed his cord. 28 days later, he died of complications from an infection. Almost a week before Eric died, Vivian was ventilated for her PDA surgery, which both of the boys had gone through over a week before. The surgery went fine, until they extubated her and she crashed. They performed CPR on our 2 pound daughter in front of her father in the NICU. Talk about scary. They put the tube back in and she recovered fully. Up to that point she had been on nasal cannula on room air. Apparently either during the intubation or the PDA ligation, her left vocal chord nerve had been stretched. Vivian was diagnosed with a vocal chord Paresis. That following week Eric got sick, and Vivian remained Ventilated . She failed repeated attempts to extubate her for the next 6 weeks. On Dec 17, 2003, exactly one month after we buried Eric, Vivian went to surgery for her trach. Levi came home after a 92 day stay in the NICU, and Vivian stayed for 102 days. She has been home ever since then, she is on trach mist at night, no longer requires oxygen support, and hardly ever hooked to her monitor (pulse oximeter). Hopefully decannulation will occur this summer...
Vivian has an older brother, Matthew, almost 13, and older sister, Megan, almost 10, her surviving triplet brother, Levi, and her ever watchful angel brother Eric Jr.
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Levi and Vivian
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Update - July 2004: We tried to decannulate Vivian on June 30, 2004. A failed attempt. On the way into the OR her ENT said 'atleast she doesn't have Subglottic Stenosis' after the procedure, 'I'm sorry, we found Subglottic Stenosis...along with silent reflux, airway too narrow for PMV' He now says it is injury from the ET tube for the vent. We are now looking at decannulation by way of Rib cartilage LTP. We have put in a call to get things started to see Dr Cotton in Cinncinnatti, hopefully we will know more soon about a time frame for this.
The good news is, although still trached, she is amazingly happy with the nurses gone. She now sleeps in her own room ( well, shared with Levi) and eats better than before. We have a very happy little girl who just happens to have an extra hole in her body. We are taeching sign language to both babies, and also us and the older kids, so our journey continues...
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Vivian - 9 months old
Update, March 2005: Vivian has been doing awesome! We made it to Dr Cotton's in Cinci, Vivian had an assessment done by him on her 1st birthday, and we learned she had 90 - 100% occlusion. We are now in the middle of fighting with Medicaid to cover surgery in Ohio, they usually only do surgery in WA state. The only complication Vivian had from her visit in Cinci was a blood infection. Gotta love those hospitals!
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We are headed back this May, when she will be 19 months old. They will do the scopes, then decide which surgery they will perform. We were warned that she may never have a voice, even with Dr. Cotton doing the surgery. The stenosis is directly below her vocal chords. We are signing with the babies, and the rest of the family is learning at the same time, a wonderful experience.
