Monica Jennings
TrachKid Profile
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Monica was born without the ability to swallow. My pregnancy complicated by massive polyhydraminos (too much amniotic fluid). She spent her first 6 weeks in NICU and hospitalized until she was 6 months old. She was trached at 4 weeks old and was tube fed since birth. At 2 1/2 yrs old Monica was diagnosed with Velo Cardio Facial Syndrome (VCFS), which is a microdeletion of Chromosome 22q11.2. Monica had a trach for her first 14 years of life and it is part of who she is. When she first began drawing her name she always made the "o" in Monica into a face with curly hair and a trach!
For years she had chronic lung disease because she aspirated her own secretions. She had a long history of respiratory infections and hospitalizations. It never seemed to bother her too much - she loves the hospital, nurses and doctors and was always very comfortable with them. She has always partipated n her own care - turning on & off her equipment when she was little and doing her own tube feedings by the time she was 11 years old. She has hypernasal speech which makes her somewhat difficult to understand at times. She began learning sign language at 9 months and was not able to speak until she was nearly 2 1/2 years old. Monica has been very active too - she got her brown belt in karate when she was 12 years old, she plays on a challenger baseball team, began learnign to ski last year and wants to learn to swim this year.
Monica had several surgeries & procedures over the past few years - a Chiari Malformation decompression, tonsillectomy, salivary glands ligation, cricopharyngeal dilations & botox, cricomyotomy and pharyngeal flap surgery.
Monica is just a very special child who always teaches us some wonderful lessons about challenges, ability and disability, health and illness, love and caring.
And finally, after more than 14 years - Monica is trach-free and loving it!Lisa Jennings
LisaMJenn@aol.com
Weymouth, MA
History
- Blog
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- Member for
- 4 years 4 weeks
Location
- Country
- United States
- State/Province
- Massachusetts
