November 3, 2025, Zayden had an ENT appointment for his recheck after having tubes put in. For the first time, he actually passed a hearing screening and showed improvement. The ENT evaluated his trach and decided that since Zayden has been weaned from the vent since May 29, 2025, and has had no setbacks, even with one setback during a pulmonary infection, that we could safely move forward with ordering Zayden his speaker valve, with the next step being to cap the trach within a few months - the end game being decannulation by late next summer to late fall.
Today, we received Zayden's speaker valve. After speaking with the ENT by phone this evening to be sure of his orders on how he wanted us to proceed, we put the speaker valve on for the first time. Zayden, who has been making noises without the speaker valve, was like a child in a candy store. He started chatting away with all sorts of sounds at a louder volume. He also let us know how unhappy he was when we, following the doctor's order, removed the speaker valve after 10 minutes. His "I'm about to spit fire at you" (could have been his I'm about to string a list of bad words at you,) attitude became very clear with both his crossed arms and his glare. He turned his head away from those in the room and promptly went to sleep. We will keep increasing the amount of times a day he will be on the speaker valve until he wears it all day and then we will switch him to the cap trials.
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