Holy Sh!t, They Almost Killed Her

Ok, maybe a bit of an exageration but then again maybe not.

When I arrived this morning Payton was getting prepped to go to Radiology to have them try to open her GJ tube.  The idea was to put a wire down her tube to see if they could open it that way.

We arrived in Radiology and they asked if we (Grandma Val and I) wanted to stay.  Of course we said yes.

The Radiologist explained that he had gone to her bedside and tried flushing the feeding tube with high pressure using a syringe with no luck.  He said he would try again and then try with the wire but he didn't have high hopes.

He filled a syringe with sterile water and tried flushing her tube...if I recall correctly he mentioned that the syringe he had used previously was small so this one was a bit bigger.  Well, he certainly succeeded in applying more pressure to 'flush' her tube.

He proceeded to blow her GJ tube apart...THANK GOD the blowout happened on the outside of her body.  We (well, myself and mom) stared in shock, dripping with sterile water.

Now, its possible that this wouldn't have killed her had it occurred in her jejunum but I wonder if using the x-ray only would he have known that he blew out her feeding tube and if there's a possiblity that it would/could have peferated her bowel unknownly.  I don't have the answers and quite frankly, I'm glad I don't (meaning it didn't happen).

As a result her GJ (feeding) tube is toast and we're back to plan A - getting her up to full oral feeds asap. Only what I thought was the original schedule yesterday isn't what they are doing...they're ramping every feed up by 5ml.

So, today at noon I just fed her 40 ml.  Her next feed at 3pm will be 45 ml.  By midnight she'll be at full feeds.

So far (fingers crossed) she's handling her increased feeds very well.  No puking and no gagging (this is where she takes after me...stomach of steel).  I think if she gets to 50ml before puking she's doing very well...afterall, normal babies puke with full feeds so at some point Payton will puke...the 'when' is the big question at this time.

Otherwise, she's doing fantastic.  Another bath today and she hated it just as much as the 1st.  I can't tell you how wonderful it is to listen to that baby scream her little heart out.  It brings a huge smile to my face.

When we arrived today we had a Blue Bird (photo to follow). A sign that Payton's time in the NICU is in its final leg.

If we can get Payton to full feeds we're well on our way home (and not upstairs especially since upstairs is full).    With full feeds they will be able to pull both her feeding tubes out though they will wait till she's 6 weeks post op due to the risk of her stomach seperating from her admonial wall...something that could result in stomach content leakage which would be 'very bad' (the official medical term used to explain it to us).  After 6 weeks they determine that the risk of leakage is not an issue.

So maybe a bad situation will have a good results...Payton orally feeding (#1) and Payton coming home (#2).  Even if its just one of the two its a huge step forward.