we have an NG tube

Two enemas on Thursday. One on Friday. A moderate amount of poop Thursday and a ton on Friday morning. But the doctors told me that it wasn't enough. A KUB (abdominal) x-ray on Friday morning showed even more stool than the one from a few days ago. It had moved around some but it wasn't coming out.

Many hours after this afternoon's enema he still hadn't had any poop. Or anything else (the Mucomyst enema didn't come out either, which was weird). Around dinnertime the resident started talking to me about an NG tube to run Go-Lytely through and make things move along. Apparently they had wanted to do it on Thursday but held off. She said that even if he pooped, or we did more enemas, he'd still need the NG tube. I told her I wasn't sure what to do. I had convinced Ricky to do the earlier enema by promising him he wouldn't have to have an NG tube if he did it, which I thought was the truth. I felt like a big meanie.

After 8 the resident came to ask me what the decision was. I told her I guessed the should do it, but I didn't want to be involved in holding him down. I did say I would hold his hand and/or be there if he wanted me. I just wasn't happy about the situation.

I held off as long as possible to tell Ricky that he was going to have the NG tube placed. He started covering up his nose and protesting. Close to midnight, the nurses finally came in to do the NG tube placement. With three of them and me (yeah, they asked me to help hold him) we did not have enough strength. Ricky scrambled and squirmed and buried himself under his blanket. A nurse called for help from another unit and a big male nurse and another strong nurse came. So in the end I did not have to hold him and there were four people holding him down and one placing the tube. Ricky kept asking if he could just drink some Mucomyst so they wouldn't have to do this, but we all knew that would not work for him. It was all or nothing. Finally he started pleading: "Mommy, help me!" :(

Finally, the NG tube was in. Of course, then they couldn't tell if it was placed correctly. They listened and listened and didn't hear the proper sounds. But finally... It was in the right place. And now his nurse just came in and started the pump with the Go-Lytely.


Ricky is tired and sweaty and Andrew is playing Wii. I think Andrew and I will lie down soon; he's not supposed to stay overnight but I'm going to see if we can swing it anyway. I have nowhere else for him to go as my mom is still recovering from surgery and she is really our only option. At least Misty is with her dad overnight.

Exhausted. :(