Friday, November 24, 2006

Chapter 2: How to feed your child with the g-tube

Sorry for the delay my friends..I wanted to post this blog earlier but was busy spring cleaning our store room filled with MY stuff..hehe..yup, its suppose to be the 'family' store room but ended up being MY store room, anyway, alhamdulillah we have or I have gotten rid of whatever is necessary and now I am ready to move into my new house and move the junk there pulak! hahaha..anyway, this is the continuation of tube feeding with ridhwan....


Initially I have shown to you how a g-button would look like in a child's stomach and the apparatus needed to feed. Today, I shall show you exactly how the tube would be inserted into the button or Bard button here. There's many types of button, somehow Ridhwan's surgeon prefer this Bard button to Mic-Key Button...hehee..yes, i thought at first it was Mickey Mouse button ya? And said to myself, ooh, I'd like that one, could be cute! ....No, its not Mickey mouse or Disney's number one mouse... its Mic-Key, guess the key means something I suppose. Anyway, the button as shown yesterday is where we insert the tube to feed and attached the syringe to it.

I still remember when Ridhwan was in the hospital after the gastrostomy surgery, he was fine the next day after the surgery, though a bit groggy and tired, but he was actually smilling and kept laughing away every few hours. Of course it was nice to see him smile and laugh and yet I thought it was weird as Ridhwan before this does not go on laughing and laughing every few hours and he just had a surgery... Even our paed was surprise and entertained that Ridhwan was jovial the whole day. She, for once smiled more often to Ridhwan and I. Not that she doensn't smile at all or much..but she's been quite serious with us past few month or the whole year or so...probably worrying away about Ridhwan's seizures not improving at that time..as it is, at the time he was warded with pneumonia, he was having infatile spams, and that was one of the most critical seizure a child or adult would not want to have. If you read the facts about infantile spasm, as a mother, you'cd cry at the very thought of every fits your child has during the spams, and the amount of brain cells being damaged because of the spasm... :( but alhamdulillah all those are gone now...

Anyway, where was I? Oh ya, steps in feeding Ridhwan with the g-button..oh what I wanted to tell was, the day after Ridhwan was laughing the whole time...the next day had to be the worse day for me and definitely Ridhwan...he cried...and cried...and screamed..the whole 24 hours....it was a nightmare to me..and so was to the paed, surgeon and especially the nurses...he was sedated to the fullest as it is and he never stopped crying..as I am typing this, I can't help crying a tear thinking that the day had to be the worse day of my life as nobody..i repeat, nobody knew what to do...he was given panadol through suppository, his seizures medication was increased...he was even given pethidine! Imagine that! That medicine is given to mothers who are in need of pain relief during delivery...and yet...he kept on crying and crying...as a mother, it broke my heart each time he cried and cried and he only stopped for the most one hour as he was tired...tired of crying..and then he cried again...sigh...

That whole day even my mother could not go home in peace..and not to mention my hubby too, worrying away what is causing Ridhwan this crying frenzy..as we were very worried that his crying was due to the gastrostomy surgery..even our surgeon had to do another endoscopy to check...alhamdulillah, when he checked it was nothing..but again, accompanying Ridhwan into the surgery theater was agonizing..once again, after sending Ridhwan into the theater and leaving him there..I broke down in tears praying hard that nothing was wrong and whatever scarry story the surgeon told me intially before the endoscopy are just assumptions..mere assumptions...alhamdulillah, the surgeon showed me the endoscopy video and he said it was all fine....ya Allah, Allah only knew the pain and the worry I had to go through at that time...and to top it of, I was starting my new semester that time..it was crucial to me as it was the beginning of the semester and classes were already starting...and in masters classes, they can't wait for you as the lectures are shorter as compared to undergrad students...or in other words compressed...but alhamdulillah, I completed it....i actually completed it! thank you Allah...

So, I thank Allah for giving me strength in time of hardships...and thank you so much to my hubby and especially my parents for believing in me that I could complete my masters and even completed it with flying colours, yup, got my results, its good, to my expectations that is...thank you to my family and my family in-law for praying for me too and especially for praying for Ridhwan...your support have been an inspiration to me..and most all, Ridhwan my love, YOU are my inspiration...

So, off we go to our tube feeding part 2 session ya...

Place the tube into the bard button as shown below..as you can see, there is a clamp there to clamp the tube during feeding or after


Another view of the button, the tube and the clamp...tissue is to prevent the excess milk or water from wetting ridhwan and the bed

The syringe inserted into the tube..this is where the milk and water will be poured into


This is how the water would look inside the syringe..the 60 mL syringe...usually, I would put around 10 mL for 'flushing' proces...yes, teringat toilet kan..hahaa...


Now, the syringe filled with milk...so first pour around 10 ml of water to flush the button, then pour the milk..so selalu 60 mL then tambah another 60 mL..until the required intake

This is how the milk looks like when i goes through the tube to the button...


Nie flushing again, to make sure the milk does not get clogged up in the button..nauzubillah..


The stopper or whatever they call it to ensure no milk get out of the tube during taking out of the tube from the button..handy thing...


Ish ...ish..ridhwan pun nak tolong mama cabutkan tube yea...takpalah Ridhwan, biar mama cabutkan yea...this always scares me as now he knows how to grab the button and nauzubillah dia cabutkan the button, no, don want!..


One contented boy..hehee...



So, here is the 2nd part or final part of tube feeding by Ridhwan's mama...its not easy to feed him sometimes as he tends to get reflux(feeling of wanting to throw up, u know, when u were pregnant and wanted to throw up but nothing comes out) and i know eventhough he doesn't cry, he is in pain, as a tear will come out from his eyes after the reflux :( ...but you are a strong boy my son and I have faith in you....we both shall rise above others!! oops, bunyi macam apa aje lak yea..hehee...

okay, that's all for now...more stories to come...maybe pics of ridhwan's physio and occupational therapy..and maybe speech..so check it out ya!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

salam kak reenaz..
selalu baca blog kak reenaz.. tapi selalu segan nak buh comment walaupon tingin sgt..tp kali ni nak buh jgk.. heehhehe..

skrg ni tgk ridhwan dah makin comel dan gebu2 laa.. auntie doa kan moga ridhwan sihat dan cergas selalu ya..

p/s: kak reenaz.. u are such a great mom.. moga Allah melindungi kak reenaz sekuarga..

edyan7 said...

salaam kak,

i cried while reading this entry... yan so impressed how lightly and cheerful you are explaining those processes to us...I know it's really hard for you to write this... but you did an excellent job covering your feeling and make us so comfortable reading it...

wish for ridhwan health...he looks healthier than last time..... sorry... akak... yan need a hug from you!! ;(

Mamapinkie said...

salmi..thanks for the wishes...semoga Allah sentiasa melindungi salmi and family di bumi australia tu yea...you have such adorable children! suka tengok dia orang dua...suka tengok sweet najihah and adorable kamil...akak pun selalu baca blog salmi tu..hehe..

yan...i give you one biiiiig hug!! heehee..its okay..when things like this happens to you, you have to be strong..not for yourself only but for the child most of the time...whatever it is, believe in yourself and your child and most of all, believe in Allah and never stop praying and asking from Allah..wallahualam...

.eiffel.amani. said...

reeny,
you are one strong lady! i'm so proud of you. i'm so proud of ridwan..
i can't imagine myself with situation u faced..
ayu doakan perlindungan dan semua yang baik2 for you and ur family. May Allah Bless you.