The Peichel Family's Story

The focus of their daily lives changed from Colin’s tracheostomy to Colin, the boy they loved.

Having a child with a tracheostomy is a life changing experience – just ask Cory and Bobbie Peichel. Their son Colin breathed through a tracheostomy tube for almost four years. The almost constant care a trached child needs can be overwhelming, but Cory and Bobbie want you to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Colin Peichel was born with Down syndrome and resulting heart defects. When he was four months old, doctors performing open-heart surgery discovered that his tracheal tube was only 2mm in diameter. The initial surgery to fix Colin’s narrow trachea was unsuccessful, and Colin received a tracheostomy at five months old.

“Our suction machine would go with us to school, the grocery store, to play in the front yard, on a walk, room to room, EVERYWHERE,” explains Bobbie.

It was a difficult time for Cory and Bobbie. They were just coming to terms with the special needs that Colin had due to having Down syndrome and trying to balance those with the needs of their 2-year-old son Ryan.

Caring for a child with a tracheostomy is a full time job, and the physical demands can be very trying.

Sleep deprivation is a common complaint. Cory and Bobbie opted not to have home nursing care and, in retrospect, regret this decision. Bobbie is very emphatic about this. “We should NOT have left the hospital before some private duty nursing was established and scheduled. Big mistake looking back.”

At first Cory and Bobbie both slept in the same room with Colin. But because of Colin’s need to be frequently suctioned, a full night’s rest was impossible. They found the best arrangement was to take turns caring for Colin at night.

Spending so much time caring for the needs of a trached child can stress a marital relationship.

“I think it takes effort to stay connected as a couple under ‘normal’ circumstances with small kids. With Colin it was even more of a challenge. I think being able to laugh helps…laughing together. It releases stress and can diffuse a tense moment,” advises Bobbie.

Taking care of each other, as well as Colin, helped keep their marriage strong. “It got to the point where we often worried about each other not getting enough sleep or starting to feel sick. We’d occasionally offer to take the other’s night with Colin, just because one was getting weary. The shared hardship did much more to bring us together than to drive a wedge between us,” recalled Cory.

Ryan, their first born son, was also a priority. It can be easy for the siblings of special needs children to get lost in the shuffle of daily care. “We had to be mindful that he needed our time and attention. When I had errands to run or work to do in the garage, Ry was always with me. Most important was time spent together. It didn’t really matter what we were doing,” explains Cory.

Feeling like a spectacle when you go out in public for the first time after your child has been trached is common.

Strangers often ask questions. Suctioning your child in public can cause feelings of, as Cory describes, “living in a fish bowl,” but it’s unavoidable. “Our suction machine would go with us to school, the grocery store, to play in the front yard, on a walk, room to room, EVERYWHERE,” explains Bobbie. “I would use a car battery charger for our suction machine. I plugged it into the cigarette lighter and say it is absolutely necessary to have this. If you are on a road trip or going to a doctor’s appointment etc., it can be charging in the car until you reach home or your destination.”

With time Cory and Bobbie became more relaxed about taking care of Colin’s tracheostomy.

Whether it was suctioning Colin in the stands at Ryan’s soccer game or “diving” into the back seat at a red light to do the same, Colin’s care began to feel more routine. And with that the focus of their daily lives changed from Colin’s tracheostomy to Colin, the boy they loved. Bobbie explains, “Over time I bonded with Colin. It was hard to get to know him as a new son when in the beginning I was just trying to keep him alive. I learned to love so many, many things about him. I learned he has a sense of humor and is also stubborn as a mule. The tracheostomy did not define him as it had in the beginning and it was not my focus as it once had been.”

Colin was decannulated January of 2004 after having a slide tracheoplasty performed at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.