AMT Mini One

Mackenzie's MicKey button had been producing ttooonnnsss of drainage. We were changing the drain sponge around it 2-3 times a day, whereas before we only had to change it once. The site was becoming super red and irritated and I decided to take her to UNC to the peds surgery team to have them assess what's going on. We saw our usual nurse practitioner and she thought it was a dual problem - the balloon probably had a slow leak (as I had put 5cc of water in it 2 or 3 nights ago and it had gone down to 4.5cc when we were there), and that the size was a little too small.

The last time we were there I had asked about switching Mackenzie over to the AMT Mini One. It's very similar to the MicKey but smaller, a lower profile, and supposedly better quality. It was mentioned by another trach parent and after researching it, I liked the concept of it. So the nurse practitioner that we see just happened to have got in a shipment of the AMT Mini Ones the day before yesterday (talk about luck!) so we made the official switch.

I'm diggin' it!

It's much smaller and really barely noticiable if it weren't for the 2x2 drain sponge. It's also harder to latch the extension tube to, so there's less risk of it "falling" out. I don't know how many times the crazy extension tube came out and I didn't notice until the bed was completely saturated in formula. :o( The nurses are getting the hang of it overall I think it'll work well.

Here's some "then" and "now" pics to compare.

THEN: This was the day after Mackenzie had her MicKey placed, so ignore the irritation and stitches. The extension piece is already attached. Otherwise the little silicon flap you see would fit in the key-hole and "close" it.


NOW: Here's the AMT Mini One this morning, again with the extension already attached. I'm not a huge fan of the extension piece that came with the Mini, but we can use the MicKey extensions on it so it works out wonderfully.


Oh... and here's a pic of Mackenzie's latest accomplishment - standing! She's just starting to get the hang of it and is super wobbly, but she loves practicing. :o) This is her over at my Dad's house right before she took a nice fall and bonked her head. Poor thing. She's quite funny about practicing, though. I usually stand her infront of me while I'm sitting and let her hang on to me. I'll start chanting "Go Mackenzie go, go Mackenzie go!" and she'll beam a great big, proud smile. Then, of course, she collapses into a fit of giggling. ;o) How did I get so lucky??


(PS on that last pic... those are supposed to be capris but they fit great as pants!)