So Thursday my GI doctor had me admitted because I have been fighting an chronic staoh infection for almost 5 months now. I have had a round and a half of oral antibiotics and 3 rounds of strong IV antibiotics. My gi decided I had suffered enough. I was admitted and we spoke with my team of doctors and the first thing they wanted to do was do a CT scan with and without contrast to make sure we havent missed any puss pockets and hopefully see if there might be air (indicating a leak) of inflammation of the track that forms around the tube. I had the CT yesterday which thankfully was normal. Then I was prepped for yet another contrast study. In May I had to have my port checked for a clot, the way they do that is they inject my port with IV contrast & watch through a fluroscopy (a live moving xray) to check where the catheter of the port is and if there is a clot. Right after the study I developed a rash therefore an iv contrast allergy was put in my chart. Any time I have IV contrast (as I did with my CT or to check my port or feeding tube placement) I have to have multiple doses of a steroid and then the last dose of steroid being an hour prior to my study would also include benadryl. I was wheeled down to Interventional Radiology where I learned they wanted to change my tube to a longer tube between the exposed button and the balloon and a wider tube that would pretty much close off my stoma so there would be little discharge. Later I also learned they wanted to do an upper endoscopy at the same time so that they could see if the inside of my stomach was having some sort of allergic reaction to the tube. Due to many reasons twilight sedation does not do anything for me, the nurse down in IR even remembered that I cried through my entire tube change APRIL 2013! So it was decided today I would restart feeds and my team of doctors would get the tube change and endoscopy set up, but it didnt necessarily have to be at the same time if we couldnt get everyone doctor coordinated at the same time. Last night I took a walk up to the room of my tubie sister who happens to be admitted at the same time as me, and my attending physician stopped by to say things have changed we will not resume tube feeds, my gi doctor is adamant that TPN be started and then after the endoscopy and tube change we will go from there. So today starts a new adventure. I have beeen able to give people advice on stomas, feeding tubes, running feeds and even ports and iv hydration. I will now be the one learning yet again. Is it scary? Yes but I have a port already, I know how to run iv hydration, iv antibiotics and push iv zofran; I can do this along with the support of my family & loved ones.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 12:33:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015