Painting the Town with Joey

Man, I have been on a major roller coaster ride with JoJo, and I don't even think the ride is over quite yet. He is still intubated and we are just working him back down to his baseline.  It's so hard to watch him struggle with this tube in this mouth and he hates it SO much.  Although it helps him breathe, it comes with a new set of problems.  Those darn secretions he gets from being unable to cough and get everything up has been so annoying.  He had a major mucous plug that we had to work really hard to get to break up.  He still has a bunch of junk down there too.  If we don't keep these secretions moving he takes a few steps back.  We have done all kinds of therapy like percussion therapy, lavage, hit therapy, pulmozyne, and atrovent. We have to stay ahead of the game before things start plugging. One of Joey's nurses suggested a shake vest as he starts to get older just to make sure that the secretions are moving along.