G-tube is gone!

Jack's g-tube is out! It came out almost three weeks ago during the night, on Thursday the 11th. I discovered it the next morning in the bed - I felt something with my hand and I thought it was an acorn (which he periodically falls asleep with in his hands). But when I brought it out from under the covers I saw that it was his Mic-key button. My first reaction was panic. The stoma (the hole that the g-tube goes in) can close up in an hour. We were told that if it ever comes out we should immediately replace it and if we can't we should take him to the emergency room where they will dilate the hole and get the g-tube back in. I looked at the stoma and it looked like the g-tube had been out for some time - it must have come out in the middle of the night at some point. So I knew that if we were going to get it back in it we would have to head to the ER and it was going to be a painful ordeal for him.

Jack has been eating all of his food (purees) by mouth for about a year now - the only thing we were giving him by tube was his meds. And the week before it came out I had started working on giving him his meds by mouth. I figured we could have that done and then the next time we have an appointment with his GI doctor, we could start discussing the idea of taking the g-tube out. And in the almost 2 1/2 years that Jack has had the g-tube it's NEVER come close to coming out. All of this, plus the fact that it came out in the middle of the night - the only time of day that we wouldn't have seen it right away and put it back in, made me feel like this was a sign that was time for the g-tube to come out.

I called his GI right away to let her know what happened and to find out if she wanted us to come in to have it replaced. I figured if she insisted on having it put back in, then we would. But she was out of the office. So I explained the urgency of the situation to her assistant who passed along the message. Our GI is rarely out of the office, and when she is she usually responds to urgent messages pretty quickly. But the whole day went by and no call from our doctor. She ended up calling me the following day (on a Saturday) a bit alarmed. She had just gotten a chance to get to her messages and she was shocked to hear the news. If we had reached her the day before, she would have had us come in to the ER. But since his g-tube had been out for over 24 hours by the time we talked, she agreed that given the situation we should just leave it out.

So Jack is officially g-tube free! I've dreamt of this day since he had the surgery to have it placed in September of 2006. It's so nice to hug him now and not feel the tube anymore. His scar is healing up nicely - it still looks like a hole, but I'm told that it will eventually heal and be more flush with his skin and you'll hardly notice it. And Dan assures me that scars for boys are cool - apparently they enjoy comparing scars and telling the stories that go along with them. I can totally see Jack doing that!