Out with the Old, In with the New

Let's start with this past weekend.

Jeremy was bathing Brayden and mentioned that his G-J tube seemed very loose. As I was dressing him, after the bath, I saw a large red fleshy bump by his tube site. This is not normal nor something we have ever seen with Brayden's tubes.

I called the GI doctor on call. She asked us to fill the balloon, that holds the tube in place. We did that. It definitely made it tighter. Then she proceeded to explain that the fleshy bump we were seeing was the lining of the stomach that came out when the tube was loose and probably came out a bit. Umm...eww and do we panic?! No. We could wait and see the GI doctor sometime this week.

I called the GI office. I left a message. I waited and waited to hear something. I called again and they transferred me right to the GI doctor himself. He told us to come to Children's Hospital the following day for a contrast study to make sure the tube was properly placed and to check the bump.

We left the house this morning (myself, Brayden and Shari Jane who is Brayden's new respite care worker). Our normal 1 - 1.5 hour drive turned into over 2.5 hours. Lots of fender benders, traffic, every stoplight and even the Presidential motorcade to hold up traffic. We finally arrived and headed into the hospital.

We waited.

Brayden was an add-on so we waited. We waited almost two hours. They finally called us back.

Brayden was strapped down on the table of a Radiology room in his little hospital gown. The radiologist who works specifically with the GI department asked a few questions and then decided just to give Brayden a new tube.

I was not quite prepared for this. We have never had his G-J tube changed.

The doctor inserted a large wire into the J tube of Brayden's G-J tube, watching it on the monitor. The wire showed were the tube was placed. After small mumblings, the doctor pulled out the old G-J tube while keeping the metal wire in, using it as a guide. The old tube was dirty and the water balloon to hold it in was completely empty thus not really holding it in.

Ok, there is Brayden on a table...hole in his stomach. I guess I could poke my finger right into it...I did not.

The doctor prepped the new tube and slid it into place using the same wire. He watched it on the monitor. He filled the new water balloon, tightened up the tube and voila, Brayden has a new tube. It is so clean and sparkly. I did not realize how nasty his old one was until I saw the new one.

We are home now after a full day at Children's. Brayden is being feed using his new tube. No problem. Just another day in the life...