Saturday 28 May 2011

A Bit Of An Update!

I have been in Papworth for 5 days today, I had my feeding tube fitted on Thursday.

At 9am Thursday I was collected and wheeled away on a bed into an ambulance. Then travelled 30 or so minutes to Addenbrookes hospital with one of the CF nurses. I went straight to endoscopy and waited for around an hour, I had been nil-by-mouth since midnight, so I was very hungry! The surgeon then came out and got me, I was very very nervous!

Firstly they had a look at my belly, I have had a feeding tube in before so had a small hole but unfortunately due to where it was positioned, they were unable to use it. So I have now got another hole about 4cm underneath the last one! They said after transplant, they would sort out plastic surgery to have a skin graft, meaning there would be no more holes :)! Anyway, because I already had a PICC line in, I did not have to have a cannula in my hand, which I was very glad about - so far so good!

They then gave me sedation and I remember thinking it wasn't working, until it hit me, everything went blurry and I couldn't see, it was awesome haha! They then put a camera down my throat, I remember feeling it and freaking out because I couldn't breathe, but once I had swallowed and calmed down I realised I was okay and that is the last thing I remember, until I awoke in recovery! The procedure actually only took 10 minutes, but I was asleep for around half an hour. Firstly they injected local anesthetic around the stomach area, they made a small insertion in my stomach, pushed the feeding tube in, then inflated a small ballon on the inside to hold it in place, they then put in a couple of stitches in which secured my stomach wall to my skin so there would be no complications afterwards - and it was done! Easy peasy and I don't remember any of it :)

I am in quite a bit of pain at the moment but it is better than it was. I'm on IV Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Tramadol frequently, which is helping to control the pain. It is very sore when I cough and also when I move around, especially when I'm reaching for things. It also is quite sore to stand up straight, but I am told I have to stand up or it's no good, so despite the pain, I'm standing tall, haha!

I started my first feed on Thursday night, I had 250mls which is 500 calories, last night I had 375mls - 750 calories, tonight 500mls - 1000 calories. You get the picture! It's called Nutrison Concentrated, which is 2 calories for every ml, eventually I will be on 1000mls a night, giving me an extra 2000 calories! This will take the pressure of having to eat lots of food, when unwell, sometimes food is the last thing you want to think about. So everything else I eat will be a bonus. Luckily, I'm not feeling full from the feed so I'm still eating normally and still pigging out as always! :)

I will have the stitches in for a month, then they will change my tube from this...



To this...

:). So one month of having a long uncomfortable wormy tube, then I can have a nice neat little button tube! 

My weight gain starts now!!!

Now to finish, here are a few pictures of life in hospital, lol:

Feed

My Hospital Room

My Big TV! &Get Well Cards :)
Me After My Op!

Feed Set Up

The View Out My Window.
Meeee :)

Josh will be here soon, yay!
x

5 comments:

Mc Clarey said...

Glad it went ok hun, you have room 2 looking much nicer than i did, its all cozy, i usualy refuse to unpack anything in the hope I might be able to escape!!

Hopefully you can start piling on the pounds soon and soon be on that list :D !

Any idea when your getting out? x

Molly said...

Glad it went well. Hope your pain starts to ease soon.

Molly x

Jess said...

I hope that you feel relieved about having that pressure off. I know I do. The pain lasted about a week for me. Hope you're out of there soon!

Gem said...

It'll be great not to have to force feed yourself when you just don't feel hungry! How is it that you still look amazing after an op?!

Hopefully the pain will sod off soon!

xxx

Foxie said...

You looked amazingly well considering the op and everything else that you were going through! x