We left off with Anthony being discharged Tuesday, February 8th with a goal of gradually increasing his J-tube feedings to 50cc/hour. This was not going well. He was barely tolerating 20cc an hour. On Wednesday night I had to shut off the feedings due to retching and gagging. Things were just not moving properly in his GI tract. Last night the feeding started leaking from around the tube and his abdomen was becoming firm and distended. My first thought was that the tube had been displaced and he might be developing peritonitis (a serious infection in the abdomen). We took him to the ER at 9pm Thursday night and the tests began. Not sure I can even remember all the tests, but this involved a night of blood work and x-rays that didn’t end until noontime today.
Anthony did have a fever and an elevated WBC (both signs of infection), but peritonitis was ruled out by a physical exam and a fluoroscopy study where they injected dye into his abdomen. While the dye did leak out from around the tube, it did not leak into the abdominal cavity. Good news. Looking at the CAT scan, it appeared as if the J-tube was kinked and may need to be replaced, which would mean another surgery. Before going back to the OR, the surgeon and radiologist decided to team up and see if they could correct the tube placement using a guide wire through the tube and visualization via fluoroscopy. Fluoroscopy is like real-time moving images using multiple x-rays. With some manipulation, they were able to get the tube properly placed. It’s hard to get a really good look with x-rays, but it seems that the balloon that holds the tube in place was defective. They managed to anchor the tube using a clamp system like the one in the post-op picture from my “Post-op Update, Day 2” entry. Eventually, once the J-tube tract is healed, they will replace this type of tube with something more permanent and secure. Hopefully, we won’t have this problem again.
So, the plan is to start over again with the J-tube feedings tomorrow, again with a goal of 50cc/hour. We shall see how that goes. I assume he will be discharged again with the PICC line and TPN until he reaches this goal.
I think that we have been spending way to much time in the hospital, as everyone knows us by name. Of course Anthony’s smile has become famous here on the Pediatric floor. Today, Anthony had two impressive student nurses caring for him. Both were first year students, but I could tell they will both become excellent nurses. Gives me some hope for the future of nursing. Tonight, Anthony has a male nurse. Male nurses are becoming more and more common too, which is also good for the profession IMHO.
