Not too long after that I heard her trying to "tell" me something. At first glance it looked like she had disconnected the tubing from her G-tube and I prepared myself for a "fed bed". Once I got a closer look it was in fact worse than a "fed bed". In her little hands was her entire G-tube with the tubing still attached. Somehow the tube had become dislodged from her stomach.
This is not good.
The first 4 weeks after the G-tube is placed is the critical stoma/tract healing time. We had been told that if the tube became dislodged during this time we would need to bring Audra to the hospital to assure that the tube was reinserted into the proper place without any complications.
Today is one day shy of 3 weeks since her tube was placed.
So we got dressed and jumped in the car headed for CHOP. When we got there they put a catheter in her stoma to keep it from closing and then we waited for the surgeon to come and replace her tube. Thankfully, the new tube went in easily and a quick dye study confirmed that it was in the proper place.
The tube that came out had a partially inflated balloon. Only about 1ml was in the balloon. There is supposed to be 4ml. Not sure where the other 3ml went??...I'm thinking that maybe there was a defect in the tube that caused the balloon to slowly leak over the past 3 weeks.
I'm looking forward to hitting the 4 week mark so we can take care of this kind of tubie drama at home. Once we pass the four week mark we are allowed to replaced the G-tube ourselves at home.
Five and a half hours, and one shiny new G-tube later...
We were back home to finish off the holiday weekend!
I'm hoping this tubie lasts longer than 3 weeks.
I made her promise to stay away from CHOP for awhile.
She said "ok"...
we'll see?!
I hope making her promise works for both of you. :P Praying for continued strength and endurance to run the race!
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