It seems that Anthony is unable to tolerate anything in his stomach without reflux causing stomach contents up to the back of his throat. Anthony has a very strong cough, which is good for clearing his lungs, however when he coughs, this also pushes his stomach contents up to his airway, which causes more coughing – it’s a vicious cycle. Even on an empty stomach, the stomach still has acids and any saliva that Anthony swallows, so his stomach is never really empty. We tried attaching a bag to the G-tube port (stomach port) to allow his stomach to empty. With this drainage bag, when he coughs, the acids go into the bag rather than up to his airway. We were feeding him via the J-tube and not seeing any formula in his stomach drainage. This approach was working great and we were up to 40cc/hour (with a goal of 50cc/hour).
Unfortunately, Anthony vomited about a week ago and the vomiting seems to have displaced the tube. We are now getting formula in his G-tube drainage. Basically, some of the formula is going in and then out again. This will not do. It seems the shorter GD-tube will not stay in place, plus considering the difficulty placing this type of tube, we have decided to go with a surgical J-tube.
So, Anthony will have two separate tubes, a G-tube to keep his stomach empty and a J-tube for feeding. The J-tube will be place beyond the site of his vulvulas surgery. Another advantage to this type of tube is that once Anthony is completely healed from this surgery, I’ll be able to change or replace both tubes myself, without having to go to the hospital. This is a big plus to me.
Anthony is scheduled to be admitted to the hospital on January 31st for pre-op testing and bowel prep. Surgery will be on Tuesday Feb. 1st and if all goes well he will be discharged on Wednesday or Thursday. He will continue on TPN via the PICC line until we are able to get enough calories into him via the new J-tube. We are optimistic that this procedure will work for Anthony and we can get him off the TPN and back to school.
