A long day...

Yesterday, after the Botox went so well, we had another issue to deal with. Oliver's tube looked very red and irritated. We know that this type of thing happens with gtubes but the site had looked great just three days earlier. What made us more worried was that the port seemed to have come away from his body and we could see part of the tube under the port. We could also feel a hard disc directly under the site. The last two changes had happened overnight. We knew something had changed. Ollie was also less comfortable than usual and his tube site was very sensitive. All these concerns added up to make us quite nervous.

So we called the on-call surgeon at CCMC and he told us it could either be an infection or that the tube had "migrated into the tract."




Since it was after 5 and all the regular staff had left for the day, so he told us to come to the ER.




The doctor's first impression was that the tube had moved and it would have to be replaced. There was a chance they could do this in radiology but they may have to take him into surgery. This would mean another IV and anesthesia.




Before deciding on a course of action, the radiologist put Oliver under the X-ray machine and put contrast through his tube to ensure it was still reaching his stomach. It was, but the anchor that held the tube in place had slipped into the tract between his stomach and his skin. Within a few minutes the radiologist had decided to remove the old tube and replace it. He pulled the old tube right out and placed the new one within minutes.

Oliver was so brave. He was surrounded by strangers who velcroed him to a backboard and were flipping him all around. The only time he was really upset was when they actually touched the tube. The nurse commented several times how cooperative he was being and how smoothly the whole thing went.




Once the new tube was placed we went back to our room for about 20 minutes waiting to be discharged. We gave him his meds in the car as we prepared to leave and he was fast asleep about ten minutes into the trip home. We got home around 12:30 and he alseep until 6:30, had his meds, and then back asleep again until 9:15. We're hoping for a good day today.




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