Monday, September 22, 2008

Off to the doctor

I talked to the surgeon's nurse today about some problems Corb seems to be having since we came home.

He's gagging,
having trouble swallowing,
he won't eat,
his tummy is gurgling,
his tummy is upset,
his g-tube site is almost for sure infected
& he hasn't went poo much (which is kinda normal).

So she explained that the gagging, trouble swallowing & not wanting to eat, is because things are still swollen (she said swelling peaks 7-10 days after surgery) & the tummy gurgling is from the excess air because he's trying to get used to the new feeling & learning to burp with things being different, so right now his tummy is very active.

So for now I'm leaving his g-tube vented.

The nurses had this niffy way to keep a g-tube venting without making a mess. You take a 10cc syringe, wrap a plastic glove around it & hook it up to a tube. It works very well. When the glove is full of air or liquid, you can just take the syringe off the end of the tube & empty it.

As for the tummy hurting & the g-tube site seeming to be infected, she wants me to bring Corbie to his primary pediatrician. But she did say the site does sound infected & that maybe his tummy hurts because it's just not ready for so much tube feeding formula. (I decided a while back that I wanted to do an over night feed so I don't have to worry about getting all of his calories in orally so we can work on some new kinds of foods.) The surgeon just had the hospital dietitian start the tube feeds. So the nurse suggested that maybe for now we should do half formula & half pedialyte.
After talking to her I feel so much better. I have been worried about him all weekend.
So we are off to the doctor at 4:00

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