The Trach Club

I've decided there's a little club of sorts for kids with trachs and the people close to them. . .

Maya, Cicily, and I were at the library today and we happened down the same isle as a little girl about three years old. At first I noticed her shoes were the same as Maya's new shoes, and then Maya bursts out- "Mom, look she has a trach!!!" She was so giddy you'd think she just bumped into Santa Clause at the library. Then Maya turns to Cicily and says, "Look Cis that girl has a trach just like you and she's walking and everything." Cicily waved to the girl as she does to almost everyone she sees, but she wasn't quite as giddy as Maya. Sadly we were too busy being excited that she had a trach that this girl ran ran off before we could talk to her. So we continued looking for books and another girl runs past us (I know we were at the library, but yes these two girls were running- full of life- trachs and all!) and Maya shrieks, "She has a trach also!" It was such an exciting thing for us to see other little girls breathing and making noise just like our Cicily does. I realized it's the first time Maya has seen anyone with a trach other than her sister.

2nd Trach Club story: Last summer our family was swimming at a hotel pool. Cicily was bobbing in the water and splashing around as usual, but it was getting late and we got out to go back to our room. As Cis and I were drying off a lady came up to me and said, "Excuse me, would you mind if my granddaughter talked to you." I of course gear up for the same old questions about Cicily like 'what's that around her neck?' I was surprised this time though. The little girl says very animatedly, "My little brother has a trach just like her! She's very cute." I was so pleasantly surprised and excited to meet this little girl, I almost cried!

So I realize there's a special affinity for families who have a member who breathes with a tracheal tube. It's like a special club that's new and sometimes exciting to be a member of; but also one whose members rejoice when people get to leave their society.


There are some famous members of the Trach Club. Catherine Zeta-Jones had a trach for pnuemonia when she was little. You can in fact see the scar on her neck, Chris and I noted it in the movie No Reservations. Elizabeth Taylor, Laura Innes (ER), Luther Vandross, Christopher Reeve, and even Pope John Paul II also had trachs. (See http://www.tracheostomy.com/resources/more/famous/index.htm for longer list)