On Aug 11th, our lives changed forever...Mitch was scheduled for G-tube placement due to the high risk for aspiration on Aug 8th. The surgery was re-scheduled by the hospital for Aug 20th. On Aug 11th, Mitch aspirated and had to go by ambulance to the ER. I immediantly used the Cough Assist machine to save his life (if you don't have one, get one), and called 911 at the same time. The hospital we had to go to did not know how to treat Mitch. He almost died there right in front of my eyes. If it were not for this amazing nurse, we would have lost him. Mitch had almost total atelectasis of all 5 lobes and was not getting adequate oxygen despite what the O2 saturations showed. Mitch had to be intubated and had a tracheotomy the next day. He also had the G-Tube placed finally. We fought to be transferred to our regular hospital where Mitch's doctors are. We finally transferred after fighting for 2 weeks. He spent a total of 7 weeks in the hospital and caught 2 very bad nosocomial infections. Mitch had enterrocaucus in his bloodstream given to him thru his picc line by dirty nursing technique. He also received the terrible bacteria called pseudomonus, which is now colonized in his lungs. We had to fight long and hard to get him home. We couldn't find a respiratory company to give us the vents, and after we did find the company, we had to fight real hard to get the vents we needed. The day we came home from the hospital is one of the happiest days of my life. I never thought we would make it. Things were going very well at home despite not having any help form nursing. I have been at it 24/7 since Oct 2nd. We finally received approval for nursing help and decided to start with 8-16 hrs a week to see how we liked it. Well, Mitch got really sick the day before we were to interview a nurse and ended up in the ER. When Mitch returned home from the hospital in Oct, he continued to have low to mid grade fevers every single day. We went back and forth to the doctors, but could never find a reason for the fevers. I suggested a sputum sample and was told from my Pulonoogist they don;t rely on those anymore. I had a deep suspician that ugly bug pseudomonas was still around, and guess what? He did indeed have pseudomonas! We just got home on the 30th of Dec after 9 days in the hospital. Mitch had pneumonia from the pseudomonus bacteria. I am administering IV antibiotics here at home now and Mitch is doing much better. It was a very tough, rough road to go down, but we made it. We had many, many people praying for us and I believe God is holding Mitch close in His arms. God is not ready for Mitch yet as Mitch is not finished with his work here on earth! We will continue to have battles to keep Mitch healthy and having trach changes is a nightmare, but we will persevere, as we always do. The support of my friends at PPMD is very important to me. Thanks to all for being a sounding board! Heidi