Well, we had a big day with Abby yesterday. We have been struggling a bit with her feeding tube for a couple of weeks now, I thought perhaps it was clogged. I tried all the "tricks" for when a tube gets clogged and then Sunday it just got dramatically worse. I wasn't able to push anything through the tube without her screaming in pain, and I knew that wasn't right. Even when we put the pump on a very slow drip, she cried when the liquid went in. So, Monday morning I put a call in to both her pediatrician and the surgeon in Ann Arbor. Her pediatrician called back first and we made an appointment to see her at 1pm. Then at noon the nurse from Ann Arbor called and asked if we could just hop in the car and come down there. She said the surgeon on call could do the surgery if needed and there weren't any patients in the surgery clinic that day. So, I cancelled the peds appt and headed to U of M.
The surgeon wanted a radiology report so he could see what was going on, so down we went to Radiology and had to squirt contrast into her tube so it would show up on the
x-ray. Of course that was painful and she really cried, and of coursethe radiologist kept needing different angles so there I was in my lead apron (I wanted to tell them there was no way in living heck I would ever be pregnant again so could I PUUULEASE take off this 100 lb lead apron while I am trying to pin this autistic child down on the table....I didn't care about ruining my eggs because I had NO USE FOR THEM ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!) Anyway, that experience was not at all pleasant but did reveal that there was no blockage in the tube, but it had indeed slipped out of place. It was almost out of the stomach completely and was shoved right up against the wall of the stomach, hence the resistance when we would try to push anything in and also
the pain during the feedings. So, from Radiology we went back to the surgeon's office so he could decide what to do. Of course when we got there he had just scrubbed in to another surgery, so the wait was on. We waited almost 2 hours in his office for him (sigh)and poor Abby had now gone over 14 hours without food in her belly and she was getting cranky (and I had not eaten since breakfast and was also cranky!!!) Finally when he came back he said we needed to get right to the O.R. and replace the tube. He wanted to put in a tube that had a balloon to hold it in rather than a disc, so that changing it in the future would be much easier. Fine by me, let's just get this thing on the road (it was already 4:30 at that point). The nurse said we likely would be admitted overnight (double sigh....I didn't bring anything with me and I so didn't want to stay overnight!) and she reserved a room for us. Fortunately, the doctor had mercy on my soul and said he thought this would be simple and as long as it all looked fine he would let us go home after the surgery (yahooooo!) She went in to surgery at about 6pm ONE CRANKY LITTLE LADY...bless her heart. The nurses there are SO AWESOME. Abby is obsessed with hockey cards and was carrying her giant stack of hockey cards with her the whole time. The nurse anesthesist was so kind and said we could take those cards right into the surgery and she could hang onto them until she was out. I tried to get a gown on her and she started flipping out, so they didn't even make her wear a gown until she was out in the O.R. She freaked about her vitals being taken, so they said forget it we'll just take them in the O.R. I was so appreciative....at that point I was exhausted and so was she and the last thing I wanted to do was fight with her anymore. They asked if she wanted to ride in the wagon and she pointed to the wagon, put her hockey cardsin it and started pulling the wagon with the cards in it to the O.R.!!!!!!! So funny. They were so accomodating, I really was so grateful. David came straight from work and got to the hospital about 6:30pm, right about when the doc came out to say it all went well andonce she was awake enough we could go home! I had to laugh when Ifirst saw her, they had her all wrapped up like a little cocoon withher hockey cards in a plastic bag right next to her head, lol Theyknew to have those things RIGHT THERE when she woke up! We had to wait a while for her to get awake and get our discharge orders, and we got home at about 9pm. It was a long day, but thankfully we should be in good shape now! I am exhausted but glad to be home!!!!
