GI Update: Surgery Scheduled

First of all, don’t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY for the $25 grocery store gift card, if you haven’t already.  There’s still time!

In my last GI Update, I was agonizing over the decision to switch The Littlest Apple from NG tube to G tube.  We had our surgery consult last week at Texas Children’s.  Going in to the consult, I had decided that I was ready to schedule the surgery.  The Picky Apple hadn’t quite made up his mind and still had some questions about the G tube.  We really liked the surgeon.  She was reassuring and took the time to answer all of The Picky Apple’s questions, interacted well with The Littlest Apple.  She showed us an actual G tube button and demonstrated how it works.  She also had a baby doll with a G tube button for The Littlest Apple to play with.

We scheduled The Littlest Apple’s surgery for September 20th.  We tried to get it done sooner, but this surgeon was going to be out of town, and her colleagues would have required their own consult before scheduling it.

The timing isn’t that great.  The Littlest Apple starts preschool (3 days a week) on September 8th.  I hate that he has to start a new school with a new teacher and new kids with this NG tube (instead of the less conspicuous G tube), but that’s just how it has to be.  (I was asked to write a note home to all of the parents in the class explaining the NG tube so that parents could explain it to their kids….it would have been nice to avoid that!!)

And just as he’s settling in to the routine of school (and being away from mommy again…which I can tell he’s already anxious about), we’ll be pulling him out of school for surgery, spending two nights in the hospital, followed by at least a week of rest at home.

I really think this surgery is for the best, but it is going to cause some bumpy transitions at school and I’m really anxious to just get it over with.  I’m not looking forward to seeing The Littlest Apple in pain during recovery, but I know he will bounce back quickly.  We’ve been talking about the surgery lots with The Littlest Apple, and he seems to understand what is going to happen.

The Littlest Apple just moved to his big boy bed last weekend, and he’s exceeded my expectations about staying in bed.  But he does have LOTS more room to roll around (he’s a squirmy sleeper) at night when he’s connected to the feeding tube which has caused some tangling and more frequent pump alarm beeping.  The other morning I went in to find the tubing wrapped around his ankles about 4 times rather tightly….just the way you might rope a calf!  At least it was his feet, right?