Sunday, September 14, 2008

Nope...It Did Not Work

The new G-tube did not work and was at time worse than other. The ugly redness and skin irritation has returned from the leakage and manipulation. It is tender and uncomfortable to the touch again for Elias. They tried so many things this weekend with that darn tube to make it work. Inflate the balloon, deflate the balloon, re-inflate the balloon, but not quite as much, pull it out, push it in, & reposition. Sounds more like a clown skit to me. We will be interested to know tomorrow if this will be the "enough is enough" scenario. It is getting there for us at this point. His nurse comment on how patient we are being about this, but honestly it is beginning to run dry.

Elias was not quite himself again today. We are not quite sure if it is because he is tired from lack of sleep since they are so active with the G-tube or if he might be getting sick. He had some wheezing today and seemed to be struggling a bit or working harder to breathe. At first we thought he may of had a plug in his trach, but after several attempts to flush and suction it out, nothing was reallying coming out. We changed the ties thinking it might be positional or loose and that helped a little, but not enough. They gave him several treatments of albuterol today in hopes of clearing it up. Listening to him 30 minutes after the treatment it was still evident, but slightly improved. This has us a touch concerned with a surgery pending for Wednesday. We are considering, based on what we hear tomorrow, refusing to sign consent for the surgery until they run a chest x-ray. It is just eerily reminiscent of mid-July's pre-surgery gut feeling. With what almost happened that day it is difficult to justify moving forward without being 100% certain he is not developing anything. Maybe we are over reacting a little, but almost losing Elias the last time we had an uneasy feeling prior to a surgery certainly warrants some consideration. We will have to see what tomorrow brings and how things play out to ultimately decide what we want to do about this scenario.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so sorry, you guys. We were hoping it would work. Well, just think - you are closer than ever to finding a solution. Not much consolation, I know. Hugs to you both, and a kiss for Elias.

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