Let's Go Tubing

The NG tube just brings out the most interesting things. In quick summary (as opposed to long summary), it is a stomach vacuum. I call it the Nose Goop tube because that is where it is threaded through. Medical professionals have corrected me and provided the proper technical term but, is this really a time to be paying heed to medical professionals? I mean really, look where that got Renee.

Yesterday, NGt started spewing out some reddish sludge. Turns out that this is not a good thing, this happens to be the same color as blood. Blood, as you may well know, works best when it remains in the bloodstream within the body. If you take it out of its regular environment it can induce panic. We did not panic. What’s a little blood floating around when you’ve got all these other problems to address? We calmly informed a nurse. By calmly I mean hitting call buttons and screaming, “We need a nurse, there’s blood pouring out of the tube!”

Sticking a vacuum into the stomach is a precarious project. It sometimes bangs against the stomach wall and attaches itself just like it would if you get too close to the curtains with your Kirby. The stomach tends to dislike this and gets irritated. The blood was an indication of this irritation. Turning off the suction for a while usually allows the hose to reposition so you may return it to its intended function. After about a half hour of clamp off, the nurse hooked the hose back up to the suction and observed the liquid flowing forth. “Back to bile,” she exclaimed with a wink and a thumbs up! And added, “you’re never going to hear that statement again,” as she turned and left laughing at her own humorously succinct observation.

So you see it’s not all somber tones, we do get to laugh every once in a while, even though it hurts at least one of us.

Back to the tube, they clamped it again today. Not because of blood, because they need to see if the sleepy bowels are stirring. Eight hours of clamp off and then they’ll measure output. If it is 200 ml or less, the tube comes out. Then we can start the whole reintroduction of nourishment through the mouth.

Renee’s doing much better today and is moving around more. She’s been up and about a few times doing laps as instructed. We are marking progress for the second consecutive day. On your marks ………