Feeding Tube…

Yesterday (Thursday) started out good. Ethan woke up, ate some Rice Krispies, played for a while with another boy, Charlie, from down the hall, and headed to the Activity Room to paint. By 11:00 a.m., he got quite fatigued, and we headed back to the room. Grandma arrived, YEAH!, to spend the day with us.

Ethan’s platelets were extremely low yesterday morning (7000), and he was able to get 5 units of platelets for a transfusion (he’s never gotten that much at once, due to the shortage). We found out around noon that those platelets he had just received gave him a boost to 58,000, which allowed for him to have the feeding tube procedure (NG tube) done immediately. (They try to only do that procedure if platelets are > 50,000, as a bit of bleeding can occur.

They whisked Ethan to a the Treatment Room, located on our floor, and did the procedure. It entails putting a tube through Ethan’s nose, down his throat, all the way to his tummy. The tube comes out his nose, is taped to his cheek, and the end of it can be hooked up to his IV pole, and oral meds and nutrients can be pumped in through this tube and go directly to his tummy. It was important to get this tube in soon…Shortly, Ethan will develop mouth/throat sores, a side-effect from the chemo, and it will be difficult for him to eat. And, it would be difficult to do this feeding tube procedure with those sores. So, getting it done on Thursday was good. He is able to eat and drink regularly with this tube in. However, we don’t have to worry if he doesn’t, as we can get the nutrients he needs in now, through this alternative way.

Needless to say, he hated the procedure, it didn’t go as smoothily as it could have. He needed to have an x-ray after the procedure to make sure it was in place properly. Of course, that x-ray didn’t show everything, so they had to come back and take another x-ray. It ended up being fine.

He hates the tube, but now, 24 hours later is adjusting. He just ate for the first time…4 green Life Savers. He hasn’t been talking either, but now is starting to talk a tiny bit. Slowly, very slowly, coming out of his funk…

There’s a bit more to tell about yesterday, but I’ll get to that in a bit…