There’s very little that will make you more thankful for what you have than spending a few hours in your local emergency room. Human drama…no wonder so many television programs draw on the hospital theme. Within a few minutes and a few feet of each other you have birth, death, recovery, injury, pain….people who are generally healthy who are moaning or screaming in pain…people who are much worse off, who lack the ability to express it…
Ironically, we spent last night in the emergency room because of a success…I’ll explain…
My daughter has a pole-type PEG tube which she’s fed liquid nutrition through. We prefer it to the “button” type for various reasons, but it does have the drawback of always ‘hanging there’…and when my daughter is ‘in a mood’, she likes to mess with hers. She has spent the last 2 weeks pulling the tip off and emptying her stomach contents all over herself and anything else she can contact….repeatedly….joyously….apparently for something to do.
So, I tried numerous ways to affix the end port to the tube so she won’t be able to remove it. And I finally did it!!!!!! Tie wraps….what can’t they fix?? 😉
Does the newer, more difficult-to-remove attachment system deter my daughter? Nope. Not even for a minute. Using the armrest of her chair as a sort-of pulley, she manages enough stress on the tube to break it at the next-most-vulnerable point….which just happens to be inside her stomach 🙁
The flange which held the tube in place until Tuesday is still inside her somewhere…for now…but the rest of the tube isn’t. A foley catheter is in its place…for now….until i can get an appointment to see the surgeon who placed the original tube. THAT should be no problem in a holiday week, huh?
But, yeah, even with the traumatic brain injury…the permanent damage, the spastic quadriplegia…my kid can outsmart me, and also make me sorry that I solved the problem that was allowing her to empty her stomach all over my house.
And I’m thankful for that…it’s not always easy to be…but I’m thankful for that.
No recommends for ponies, please. Don’t make me come tie-wrap your fingers together… 😉
~73v
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I always wonder if I would be up to doing the tasks which you are doing everyday.
I have had many a bored kid yank a mic-key, G tube or hickman line out because they “felt like it.” Fun.
My your darling daughter has an offbeat sense of humor!!