Orinizing all of your Trach supplies (because there are a lot!)
This is Molly's room. We have a two story house with three bedrooms upstairs. Months before molly was born I spent hours upon hours on planning, painting, making handmade decoration for my new baby girls room. Well... When molly came home after five months in the hospital with her ventilator, we knew upstairs was not going to work. Molly needed to be in a space that was centrally located, no stairs and that nurses could stay with her through the night. Luckily, we have a small room in the front of the house that has a fireplace that was being used for a computer room. This is what we set up for molly when she came home, and the other room can be used later when we are off the ventilator.
We keep this small jar of sterile water for flushing molly's g tube and for flushing the line of her feeding bag after she is done. Molly has a feeding schedule that is continuous through the night at a rate of 60 on the feeding pump and has three feedings a day at a rate of 80. After each feeding we flush her tube with 20 ml of sterile water. It is nice to have this handy instead of running back and forth to the kitchen all the time.
We use molly's changing table to keep baby things. On the top shelf I keep baby sheets, baby blankets and onesies. On the middle shelf I keep diapers, socks, hair bows, bibs, and long sleeve onesies. On the bottom shelf I keep Molly's bath things (we take a bath every morning), burp clothes, and of course a whole bin of leg warmers, those are molly's favorite fashion accessory!
Molly's outfits on the side of her changing table. She is a little fashionista!
This is the shelf that holds molly's medical supplies. I try and keep this organized and labeled so everyone that takes care of Molly can find things. On the top shelf we have her medicine and seringes. On the middle shelf we keep extra trachs, mouth swabs, gloves, medical qtips and her nebulizer. On the bottom shelf we have labeled bins of supplies that are better seen in the next picture. On the floor we have water bags and trach care kits. To the left of the shelf we keep our feeding bags.
From left to right:* I have a skin care box, which have skin prep, clear tape and, powder for her trach ties. *There is a box for individual gloves that come out of the trach care kits.
*Then we have a box for her trach tube holders that we put around her chest to hold her vent tube centered so it does not pull. *The next box contains new pulsox and saline.
The bottom row of boxes is* a box for g tube supplies, *The next box contains catheters for size smaller trach (just in case).*Trach ties are in the next box and then trach care wipes which are four by four wipes.
*Then we have a box for her trach tube holders that we put around her chest to hold her vent tube centered so it does not pull. *The next box contains new pulsox and saline.
The bottom row of boxes is* a box for g tube supplies, *The next box contains catheters for size smaller trach (just in case).*Trach ties are in the next box and then trach care wipes which are four by four wipes.
I have bins for daily meds, one for oral or g-tube meds and one for respiratory meds. This needs to stay centrally located on the top shelf so any nurse can find them when they need them.
These boxes are for syringes. One for clean and one for dirty. This saves a trip to the kitchen to wash every time a syringe is used. We just wash all the syringes once a day this way. It is much more convenient.
These are water bags for the humidifier in these big pink wooden bins. We go through one bag per 24 hours, so we need 30 bags per month.
This board is on the wall when you walk into the room. It contains info that everyone should know about molly and daily items that need to be done. I have dry erase markers under the board so the nurse that is working can mark when she does each item. On the left side we have important phone numbers, important appointments, suction depth, our address in case of a 911 call and when things were changed last. In the center of the board is the feeding schedule. On the right of the board are things I want to be done for Molly or have to be done every day.We write the date of which the task was done next to it.This board is really helpful to me, it saves me from looking in the nursing book and digging through notes in case I am unsure if something was done.
Erik, my husband, built this box with handle for under molly's bed.We used the pink bath bins from the hospital for storage.We keep all things for the ventilator in here like The extra tubing that we change once a month. We store accordion pieces that connect to the tubing, extra suction canisters, as well as extra nebulizer cups and tubing. This is very handy to pull out and get something quickly if you need it.
This is Molly's go bag, it is a very important bag that was given to us by Mott Childrens hospital when we got molly's trach. We bring this where ever we go. It contains an extra trach and opterator. It contains a size smaller trach, trach ties, sterile lube, gloves, seline, and an extra suction catheter. This bag rolls up and is brought where ever Molly is. When we are at home it always hangs on the side of her crib.
This is our dining room where we keep the nursing binder and many nurses chart here. Molly can be seen when you are sitting at this table. Molly really can not be left alone for more then a minute or two at a time incase she pulled her self off of her vent or needs a suction. We also keep her car seat, extra suction, baby seat, and saucer in this room so it is easy to get too.
This is the corner on my kitchen counter that we keep for molly's things. On the left is a sterilizer, a bottle wrack, baby water, white vinegar, and formula. We make a 24 hour batch of formula at a time and keep it in the refrigerator. We use baby water for everything that is molly related. Our house has well water and well water should not be used for anything that is related to her trach.
I have really loved painting things in pink, buying decorations for her room and her brother Jordan also likes to draw some pictures for Molly too. This is not necessary to organizing but fun!
I have really loved painting things in pink, buying decorations for her room and her brother Jordan also likes to draw some pictures for Molly too. This is not necessary to organizing but fun!