This past weekend was full of joy and excitement. The joy came from celebrating Riley’s baptism. This was really special for me since I got to perform the baptism. The fun excitement came on a positive note with the boys getting to have all their grandparents in town for the weekend. The not-so-fun excitement came from a visit to the new MUSC ER to replace Caden’s g-tube button.
The entire family had just arrived at Ashley River Baptist for their Walk Through Bethlehem when Sherry went to disconnect the feeding pump and found that the balloon that holds the g-tube button in Caden’s tummy had burst. There was the tube and the button hanging in her hand. The balloon was likely busted for some time prior, but it picked this weekend to come out while we were out enjoying some family time.
We did not have a spare g-tube button in the van. I had jockeyed some seats around in the van recently and removed the emergency kit that we normally carry everywhere. I tried to reinsert the old button so it would hold the hole open but I was not successful. We decided to proceed with the walk anyway and then go to MUSC when done since we were close and were not sure we were going to be able to get the button in at home. This is a new comfort level for us. Two years ago there is no way we would have waited an hour before replacing the button.
It seemed that the ER visit confirmed our suspicions about potentially having a hard time inserting the button. The ER doctor was a really nice guy and he was a big teddy bear looking big man. He was confident in what needed to be done because he had done this before. He politely stated that if he could not get this thing in then he would have to call in peds surgery. I acknowledged him and he proceeded to get gloves on. I recommended that he insert a q-tip stick into the center of the g-tube shaft to help make it more stiff. I tried unsuccessfully to use a lollipop stick for this on the old button back at the church. He agreed with my advise and followed it. After a very good attempt he was not able to get the button inserted into Caden’s stomach. With his head low he peeked under his brow and asked, “dad, do you want to give it a try?” I was very motivated to avoid the call to peds surgery and agreed. I gave the q-tip another good push into the button and then added an extra glob of K-Y jelly to the button and around the hole in Caden’s tummy. It was not easy to get in but It did go. It was not without a great deal of discomfort for Caden. The doctor ordered an x-ray after putting some contrast into Caden’s stomach. This was to ensure that the tube was delivering liquids into Caden’s digestive track rather than the abdominal cavity. All came out fine except for me.
Later that night I lay in bed with Sherry praying with giant tears rolling off my face and down into my collar over the pain I had inflicted on my son a few hours before. For the first time ever I actually thanked God for the feeding tube. While I hate having to feed my 4 year old through a tube, that thing has literally been a life saver for Caden. I am confident that Caden will eat and drink by mouth someday, but for now I have only a Hebrews 11:1 faith to stand on.
The weekend was sealed off for me on Monday morning at about 3Am when stomach bug version four struck. I have had this thing four separate times about a week to a week and a half apart. I don’t ever remember being sick like this in my life. I had lost 12 lbs during the month of November as a result of the first three episodes of the bug. I had gained back about 7 lbs in a week when this last episode hit. I lost the 7 lbs again within about four hours on Monday morning. I finally broke down and went to a doctor Monday afternoon. I left the doctor scratching his head after he wrote a GI referal. He thought the whole thing might be stress related but admitted that he really had no idea. Maybe it was stress, but I don’t think I have been facing any more stress recently than I have in recent years. We’ll see what the GI guy says.