OMG… Shawn… his tube fell out!

And thus our day began :).

It was 7:00am on Friday and Shawn was already up and showered and well on his way to being ready to bike to work.  Henry had decided at 6:30am that it was time to Rise & Shine (much to my displeasure after having slept in the past 2 days!).   The cat was meowing at the end of the bed, excited about the prospect of breakfast earlier than usual.

And then it happened…

As I helped Henry slip over the end of the bed and land on his bum on the floor and I saw his feeding tube “button” (the part that’s supposed to stay in this tummy) laying on the floor :(.

Henry's g-tube

(A little background here – now that Henry’s mastered going down the stairs backwards, he’s convinced that as long as he turns around backwards he should be able to get down from anywhere…  the change table… our bed… sofas… regardless of the height.  So I’m now constantly on the lookout for his “bum-first” manoeuver indicating an imminent “slide” off whatever he is on.)

In my panic I yelled out for Shawn a little louder than I should have and this scared Henry… but he recovered pretty quickly with the prospect of something new on the floor to play with.  Needless to say, Shawn came running out of the bathroom in his robe wondering what in the world was going on so early in the morning.   He took one look at Henry grinning up at him, holding onto this feeding tube, and stopped still.

“Wha….???”

Then, I’m proud to say, we both sprang into action very well.  You’d have thought we’d practiced (and I’ll freely admit that I have… in my own mind at least).

Before Henry had even got his g-tube put in, I’d heard stories of tubes falling out.  We’d been warned that if we didn’t check the water regularly, it could slowly leak out and the tube will fall out.  Plus, there’s always the chance of defect in the balloon causing it to have a small hole, which is why we check it prior to putting a new one in.

But here’s the thing… we’d done what we were supposed to.  Those who know me well know that I’m a bit of an anxiety-ridden control freak (I choose to celebrate this character trait!).  This combined with the fact that Shawn’s an engineer… so very good at “quality control”… and we’re covered!   So rest assured… we’d checked.  This tube had only been in for about 3 weeks – since about mid-August.  And we’d checked the balloon prior to inserting it and had checked the water since.

And yet… there is was.. currently being played with by our curious 18 month’er… who, as a result, had a whole in tummy.  All I could think of was his stomach contents were leaking all over the floor!  Not the most glamourous (or accurate!) sentiment… but that’s what flashed through my mind.

Thankfully Shawn scooped him up and layed him on the bed and sent me to get a clean cloth to cover the hole (nothing was leaking out, by the way).  Then we planned… I got a new g-tube kit (once a tube hits the floor, it never gets reused), a glass of water, his syringe and extender tube from downstairs.  Shawn entertained Henry and kept him laying down on his back.  Since we’d just changed the tube a few weeks ago, we remembered exactly what needed to be done.  (We’ve only done this a couple of times so far… Henry just got this type of tube in February and it only gets changed every 3 months – normally!).   Shawn checked the balloon in the new tube – looked good, then I coated the tube with a water-based lubricant to help it slide in easier.

We’d unspokenly established our roles when Henry first got his ng-tube over a year ago… Shawn’s the “holder” and I’m the “shover-inner”.  Meaning it’s Shawn’s job to hold Henry down (regardless of how much he may not like it) and entertain him (usually with lots of songs), while it’s my job to shove in whatever tube we’re currently using.  By this point, Henry is often screaming at the top of his lungs and writhing furiously, but I try to block it out and focus on my job… get the tube in properly and as fast as possible.  As much as the hole in Henry’s tummy may gross me out a little (I’m his mama… I’m allowed to say that), his g-tube is WAY, WAY, WAY easier than his ng-tube used to be.  With this tube, there’s only a slight amount of a resistance and it usually slides right in.

Not always pretty, but nicer for all involved!

And with that, our excitement was over.  I gave Henry a bit of water through the tube, just to make sure it was in and working… and we all went down for breakfast.  I’m glad Shawn was still home, as it’s so much easier with two people.  But if needed, I could get it in on my own.   There’d be a lot of tears (likely from both of us), more rounds of itsy-bitsy spider than humanly plausible,  but it’d be done.  🙂

When we tested the old tube, it turns out there was a pin-prick sized hole in the balloon.  It didn’t show up when we simply filled the balloon with water – it wasn’t until Shawn squeezed it that water squirted out.  So it may have been there the whole time and we never noticed.

Now we know… when putting in a new tube… the “squeeze” test is needed…

 

Cheers, Shelley

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