Now if they could just give me some of the morphine, too. :P

We got off to a rocky start, because his surgery was supposed to be at 7:30 a.m. The surgeon had an emergency, so we kept getting bumped. He didn't wind up having surgery until 6:30 p.m. Thank goodness they had admitted him the night before, so he was on an IV. He was a little cranky because he was hungry--which is a good thing in our little ones who don't like to eat.

The surgery lasted about an hour and 20 minutes. (It took a little while to get him intubated because he's so small). Thankfully, he was extubated in the OR. I was so worried he would have a hard time getting off the vent. The surgeon said everything went very well and that he did great. He is resting comfortably thanks to the morphine. We expect he'll be in the hospital 5-7 days, depending upon when he begins to tolerate feeds. I'm guessing it will be closer to the 7 days because Tucker seems to like being in the hospital, he's never in a rush to leave. Every other time he has been in the PICU, when we'd talk discharge he'd have an incident (choking, dropping SATs, turning blue..)

Surprisingly, the tube didn't totally freak me out when I saw it post-op. I though I was going to be totally freaked, but it's not as bad as I imagined.

Thank you all for all of your support. I'm sure I'm going to have a million questions for you when we get him home.

I'm so glad that you and tucker are doing well!

Glad to hear it went well, hope he feels better soon!!!

glad to hear it is going well. I hope the recovery is speedy. It is overwhelming, but it is so much better when you get home and figure out your routine.

I have been taking Sam out between feeds for a quick trip to the store but today we were out for a while and I had to feed him in the car. It took me a bit to figure out how to set things up, but it worked great. I hung the kangroo bag from the ceiling of the van and the pump sat on his brother's seat (not sure where to put it when Ben is with me) Now we can be more mobile!

Please do not hesitate to e-mail me with any questions--we just went thru it all and it is fresh in my memory! Good Luck!

I am so glad to hear that the surgery went so well. I do hope that the recovery is quick.


Melanie

I'm glad the surgery went well! Wishing Tucker a speedy recovery!

Thank you all so much for responding.

How did you keep your children from accidentally pulling on g-tube in the time from surgery to mic-key button being placed? Did you tuck it into diaper or tape it down or anything? Tucker is famous for pulling out NJ/NG tubes, IVs, etc....and he keeps knocking the g-tube with his arm. (They have it hung up in the hospital to vent and drain, since today is only 2 days post-op.)

When my son had his gtube prior to the button we would tape it to his clothes on the inside. We were lucky that he only pulled it out once and we had a catherter on hand to place in site til we could see the doc. I also know that my sons tube was stitched in to keep it in place. I do hope that things continue to go smoothly for you.


Melanie

Sam's tube had a stitch, but I put some tape on the tube (made a tab of some sorts) and then I safety pinned it to his diaper for extra security. He never bothered it because I always made sure it was tucked under his clothing.

Daniel was certainly interested in his long tube, but only when he wasn't wearing a shirt and when it fell out of his shirt. We tucked it in his diaper at night and threw it over his shoulder during the day. We also put him in a lot of onesies, but now that he has his button, the onesies are a real pain.

great advice. thanks so much. Tucker's does have two stitches to hold it in place, let's hope that works! They are starting PO feeds now. I hope he does well. They are starting with one ounce and whatever he doesn't take will go down the tube. Keep your fingers crossed that he is still interested in PO feeding. I'm worried that the surgery will have made him too sore.