You will remember that a couple of weeks ago I had a feeding tube fitted in preparation for when eating becomes difficult over the next month or so. Up to now the tube has been fixed externally by a couple of stitches and internally by a clever little balloon device which inflates with water to hold it in place. Or at least that's the theory.
Yesterday morning the district nurse came to remove the external stitches, which went fine, but it transpired that these stitches were the only things holding the tube in place.
About an hour before my 3 o'clock radio session I went to get ready to leave, pulled up my t-shirt to check all was well with the tube and to my horror found it hanging out, connected only by a bit if medical tape. Panic stations.
We zoomed down to the hospital where it was established that the balloon was and had been since it was fitted, busted, and the whole tube would have to be replaced. This got me thinking about the day of the op and when I went back to the ward. The nurse taking care of me knew that she had to flush out the tube, but had never seen one like mine before. As a result she flushed the wrong connection and the popping sound which I heard, but dismissed, was obviously the sound of the bubble bursting.
Because the bubble was in effect floating around it had pulled through the hole that had been made into my stomach which had subsequently healed up, and was just in the space between my stomach and skin, and consequently when the external stitches were removed it just fell out.
The external hole (stoma) is still there so I have had a new pipe pushed through it and taped up and I await an appointment today to have the pipe 'eased' into a new hole in my stomach . Lovely.
On the positive side, because the staff in radio were so quick to sort things out yesterday, I didn't miss my session, so we are up to date with my treatment.
Today could be interesting.
Fig.1 the exploding balloon
Stoma Yamashta !
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