A Journey In Hope: April 2012

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Monday, April 16, 2012

The changing of the tube

One of our least favorite things in life is "The Changing of the Tube." We've heard from adults who have had to have a tube inserted through their nose, that this is a horrifying experience. Watching Mr. Boy be held down by 3 nurses and scream his head off, is not much more fun. Since getting the nasal tube almost one year ago, we've been to the ER 3 times to get it put back in after being ripped out on accident (2 of these times we were out-of-town), and had a scheduled hospital change twice. In december, we got fed up with the constant worrying that at any moment, the tube could come out and we'd be back in the ER with a screaming baby. I called the Dr and asked that we be taught how to insert the tube ourselves. There was a little apprehension, but eventually they trained us and we have now inserted the tube twice all by ourselves. I hold him down while Dave inserts the tube and its over in seconds rather than hours. Many hospitals regularly train their parents to change the tube at home, but Sanford has the gold standard of requiring x-ray confirmation for tube changes and that is wonderful, but it's even more wonderful that they bent the rules for us, so Mr. Boy wouldn't have to suffer through the drawn out tube changes in the hospital, with all the anxiety and trauma that comes along with that for him. That's not to say that doing it at home is all fun and games, but its about 1 tenth of the intensity. We are very thankful Mr. Boy's doctor had faith in us!

You can see Mr. Boy's red cheek trying to heal after we changed his tube to the other side the day before. After weeks of tape on his cheeks they get pretty roughed up.