While Jennifer and I were at our cheese making class last Saturday, Donald was home tending to the children. He put Elisabeth down for a nap and left her alone until he heard her stir about two hours later. That's when he discovered it - that she had pulled out her g-tube button!
Now, the problem is not that the button came out; we are used to changing them at home and put new buttons in every few months. The problem was that when Elisabeth pulled her button out, there was nobody around to put it back in.
You see, the stomach heals fast, really fast - and for good reason; you certainly don't want stomach acid seeping out everywhere. In fact, when Elisabeth's g-tube was placed two years ago, the surgeon told us that if it comes out, the hole can close up within twenty minutes.
And close it did.
That's when I got the text. The one that said,
"Come home. Elisabeth needs to go to the hospital."
So Jennifer and I left behind our precious cheese and drove Elisabeth to the hospital to get her stomach re-pierced, so to speak.
And if you were wondering - they don't make a special re-open-the-stomach tool. In fact, they were going through supply closets, brainstorming on what the best tool would be for a situation like this. Poor Elisabeth, in the end they managed to re-open her stomach wall - but it was not without pain
and tears.
[A detailed diagram of Queen Elisabeth's abdomen (minus her g-tube button). Fascinating, no?]
[The 'procedure'. Not for the faint-of-heart, that's for sure.]
And it's back in!
Woohoo!
Thank goodness...now I can feed her again.
And give her methadone - we mustn't forget about the methadone.
