A telephone call from school was the first notification that there was something wrong with Kirsty-Lee’s feeding tube. The nurse informed me that they couldn’t get an aspiration from the tube.

This involves attaching a syringe to the tube and drawing some stomach acid to ensure that the tube is in the correct place before any feed can be put through it.

I picked her up from school and took her to Ninewells hospital where she would be seen by a staff nurse there. The nurse said that they would have to insert a new tube for her. This involves passing a tube up her nose and down the back of her throat. Not a nice experience for anyone, but worse for Kirsty-Lee as she cannot say no to anything. The nurses tried four times to pass the tube without success before finally getting one in place.

They could still not get an aspiration from it. To save Kirsty-Lee from any more trauma I decided to take her home and we could try again the next day. Kirsty-Lee can eat orally but not enough to keep her weight up, hence the need for the nasal feeding.

The next day I picked her up at lunchtime from school and took her along to the hospital. The doctor had taken the decision to have her x-rayed before trying anything else. This would let us see where the tube was sitting. The x-ray quickly showed up that the tube had not been inserted far enough and was sitting at the top of her stomach. It was then only a case of pushing it in another two inches and this resolved the problem.

Drama over - Kirsty-Lee isn’t a child that often cries therefore when she does it is because she is in pain. She cried a lot on Tuesday afternoon but now her radiant smile has returned and all is well.

Thank you to the nurses in the GP bay at ward 29 Ninewells Hospital Dundee.
 


Comments

Hillary Davidson

09/25/2011 13:52:44

So stressful for all of you Beth. Glad it was sorted relatively quickly. With love, respect and admiration, Hill X X X

 



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