Hello ladies

So Brennan had his g-tube put in on monday april 17th and we were supposed to go home the following day, well, we just got home yesterday. We were in the hospital for a week and a half and things still aren't going well. The surgery itself went fine but he had trouble tolerating his feeds, was vomiting and had diarrhea really bad...no one knew what was going on, we started to wonder if he had some kind of bug but it couldn't be confirmed. On friday night he had his worst night, woke up vomiting and continued until he was dry heaving for 2 hours plus to the point where he was bringing up bile, had a fever, just a horrible night. Two days later, I ended up having the same night, so that was good news, he did have a bug that I had also caught (and then dh and my sister as well). I wound up in the ER on IV fluids and while I was down there he pulled his button out...it figures, the one time I leave him that has to happen. They got it back in and it seems fine, just a bit more leakage around the site. I got over my bug in about 3 days however Brennan is still vomiting during the night while on continuous feeds at 45cc/hr and still has diarrhea...I am really hoping it is still due to the virus, but I'm losing faith. We have finally got him on 4 - 4oz boluses a day and the continous at night for 10 hours. This is such a dramatic change from the 3 - 10oz boluses he was taking no problem with the ng tube. He had an upper GI and tube study and there were no problems found so if it is not the virus then no one knows why he is having such trouble. They all told me he would be in and out, on 8oz or higher boluses no problem, etc etc. Has anyone ever had an experience even somewhat similar to this or any advice to offer. Oh and he is only on 1/2 strength formula right now (neocate jr and plus one) so he has lost a pound and I was told not to change to full strength until his diarrhea stops. Please help me, I can't handle this!

I'm so sorry Brennan isn't doing well!

Eight and ten-ounce boluses sound pretty big. How old is he? Daniel only gets six-ounce boluses (though he can handle a very fast rate), but when he's sick, he often starts vomiting after three or four ounces. So I REALLY, REALLY hope Brennan can get over this bug and start his real recovery very soon!

I hope he gets better quickly!
Emily has a hard time off and on with herformula and we have to do the same thing with her. before they would have us even try pedilyte and neocate. It sucks I am no doctor but lets hope it is a virus. When he is on neocate is he on 20 cal or 30 cal? I know that neo. 1 is a 30 cal formula, but you can make the neocate 20, 24, 27, and 30. They also have us on 30 cal regular neocate and we are working over to the necate plus 1. So right now we are doing half and half hoping she wont do the diah. thing. I hope things get better! Good luck Beth
Cheer up things will get better soon.

Sorry, about the problems. That was one awful flu to end you up on the hospital.

I don't know much about tube feeding, just want to let you know I hope it gets better soon. Shae-Lynne is on the j-tube 20 hours a day, slow drip.

I am sorry to hear that you had such a hard experience with the button. I do hope that it is a virus and that it clears up soon.

When my one son had his button placed he had a really difficult time tolerating feeds in the begining. He orginally had a ng tube for over three months prior to placement of the button. He did fine with the feeds in the ng but then did also vomit the feeds up when a gtube was placed.

Our doc did change his formula which did help some but what they thought was that there was irriatation at the site and causing him to reflux more. I do know that the gtube can cause problems with retching if there is a delay in the stomach and can increase the reflux. It took some time but my son did end up clearing on his own after some time but it was fustrating trying to deal with it all. I do hope that things improve soon.


Melanie

Sorry to hear it did not go so smoothly.
8-10oz bolus' are a lot. How fast do you run them in???
Sam gets 5 4oz bolus'. smaller more frequent meals agree with him better. I run them in over 40 minutes. He is also on high calorie--Nutren Jr food---1cal/ml. You might have to play with his feeding schedule once he get over this bug. I hate doing night feeds, so I do anything during the day to avoid having to do that.

Thank you for all of your replies. Things seem to be getting better, he no longer has diarrhea and hasn't thrown up since his first night home. I have slowly increased his bolus feeds and got him onto full strength neocate junior (1cal/mL) yesterday. He was doing 4 - 135mL boluses over an hour a day and 42ml/hr at night. Today I tried a 6oz bolus to try to get him to 3 boluses during the day to coincide with mealtimes...so far so good. He has started to eat more by mouth so I'm hoping this continues. I also hate doing overnight feeds but I don't want to cram so much into him during the day that he doesn't want to eat any food orally...our ultimate goal is to get him to eat orally and get rid of the tube so we will try sticking to this regimen for a while and then when we go back to the feeding specialist we can work from there. We haven't been to her since before the surgery and I want to give him some time to get used to this before going back.

I am so glad to hear that things have improved and that he is doing well right now. It sounds like that you are a doing a great job with his feeds and getting them where they need to be. I do hope that things continue to go so well.


Melanie