Saturday, January 13, 2007

You've got to be kidding ...

Tonight was our second night of adjusting to life with Claira and her new attachment. We could hardly get her to eat anything today so we felt we needed to go ahead and up her volume from 25 ml an hour to 30 ml an hour, which would be a difference of 2 oz over a 12 hour period. We were told we could play around with the volume until we found an amount that worked best for Claira ... and since she went 1 1/2 days without vomitting we felt safe in doing so. The home health agency provided us with an IV pole to hold the pump and bag as well as a backpack to hold both so we could move around the house. It's a cute concept (especially because it's pink!) but it's not practical at all. In the front of the backpack there's a place to hold the pump and the bag is to go inside the backpack ... yeah right! The bag falls down so that it doesn't feed the milk into the tube and there's no place for the tubing to go from the pump to the bag. I'm not sure they thought this through very well.
Anyway ... after we laid Claira down for the night. Before I go any further, let me clarify that process for you ... first we have to use a stethescope to check that the tube is still in her stomach (if it isn't we have to take it out and replace it because it could go into her lungs), next we administer her medicine through the tube (this actually is nice because that way she doesn't have to taste the nasty stuffy). Then we put the milk into the bag, prime the pump, connect the tube to her tube and let it go. So ... not long after we laid Claira down for the night she started to throw up. If I had to guess the amount, I would have to say at least 2 to 3 ozs, so it was ALOT! As we're cleaning her up we realized that the tube was sticking out of her mouth! I was so freaked I tried to figure out how a tube that goes into her nose and down to her stomach could be coming out of her mouth! (Can I just say again that this is only day 2!) Tom explained to me that she threw the tube up with her food ... that's why it was coming out of her mouth. Immediately I decided "forget the tube ... I'm not putting it back in ... we'll just wait until a nurse can come and do it!". While Tom cleaned up the bed and I bathed Claira ... Chelsea threw up all over herself and her bed! So Tom went to clean her up and I decided I'm probably on my own and so I gathered Claira and all the things I needed to do the unthinkable ... then Evie climbed onto the toilet and fell head first into the trash can! You have to realize how stressed we both were tonight ... the only emotion left was to laugh!
Needless to say we all survived and I successfully replaced the feeding tube. She's sleeping and back to her original dose of 25 ml an hour.

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Thank you David and Gina Brim for helping to express our gratitude for an amazing show of compassion and generosity.