Tubie tune up

After seeing the surgeon on Friday, the verdict was surgery is needed for her g-tube.  And today was the day.  The surgeon was concerned there could be a fistula (essentially a "tunnel" between her stomach and the infected area of skin) that is causing the area of infection to continue to fill up and not heal.  He also thought there could be a retained suture from her initial g-tube placement surgery that is aggravating this whole situation.  So the only way for him to know for sure and determine the appropriate treatment is to have a look in there. 

Precious girl fell asleep in my lap this morning waiting for her home care nurse to arrive and accompany us down to the hospital. 

 

We arrived at the hospital right on time, but of course things were delayed and we spent quite a bit of time in the waiting room.  Audra was so good about it though.  Maybe she knew what she was in for and therefore didn't mind waiting it out.

Her iPad entertains her for hours...



Still waiting,

and still smiling!

Once it was finally her turn things went quickly.  She put up her strongest fight ever letting the anesthesia take effect.  I went into the OR with her like I always do to hold her and reassure her until she fell asleep.  She was in and out of the OR in under an hour.  The surgeon did find a fistula but not exactly what he was expecting.  Turns out the fistula was running from the abscess to her g-tube tract.  Very unusual.  This required the surgeon to open up her skin through the abscess all the way down to the level of the fistula and leave it open so that it can heal from the inside out essentially.  This also meant that he needed to take her cute little button g-tube out and place a temporary catheter into her g-tube tract that is secured with a huge adhesive disk with a zip tie sort of thing that goes around the catheter.  It's gonna be interesting trying to keep her from picking and pulling it apart.  This means no bathes, no gym and no sports.  Which for Audra will be devastating not being able to go on the trampoline in our backyard !

Hopefully it will heal up quickly now and all this tubie drama will be done.