Changing of a feeding tube

I'm A little over a month ago, I had an incident that resulted in my feeding tube falling out. I have had lots of questions about what the dr's do when something like that happens. I thought it would be best to write a post about it and share some pictures. Some of these pictures may be a little unsettling to the stomach so if you have a weak constitution, you might want to skip this post. 

My feeding tube is called a Mic-Key low profile feeding tube, other wise know as a "button". This tube is held in by a balloon that is inflated with water after it is inserted into the abdomen/Jejunum. If the balloon pops or losses it's water, it can become dislodged from the abdomen and the hole that it goes through will start to close. This hole/stoma/tract can start to close up within about an hour of the tube being removed. 

On a Tuesday night I went to bed and hooked up my feeding tube bag of water and then went to sleep. Around 3 am I was woken up by a wet feeling that was running down my side. Come to find out I was drenched in water and bile because the feeding tube balloon and popped and fallen out while I was sleeping. I wasn't sure how long it had been out as I couldn't get it to go back in again. I quickly woke Sean up and told him that I needed to go to the hospital to have it replaced as I didn't know how long it had been out and it was the middle of the night. We decided that I would just drive to the ER and get it taken care of because I was thinking that it would only take me a couple of hours and then they would send me home. Needless to say it took a lot longer then that.

It took them about 45 minutes to get me back to be seen. Then they couldn't find the right tube and I kept having to tell them that it was a Jejunosmy tube and not a gastric tube. Here is a picture of what the hole looks like without the tube in it: 

This is what the tube that fell out looks like:

 
Since they couldn't find the right tube, they decided to place a folly catheter until they could find a proper replacement. This would help keep the hole from closing up while I waited. This is what the fully catheter looks like:

After wait and waiting they finally told me that they had to put a referral out to the surgery department to make sure that tube was placed correctly. I knew this was an overkill but at this point I didn't have much choice. A resident Surgeon came in and placed a long tube. They weren't able to find a replacement low profile tube. This one is a little different because it has the long tube and a plastic bumper on the outside of it.  So now I had this long new appendage and I instantly missed the lower profile tube.

I Was hoping that once they placed the tube I would be able to go home but they wanted to make sure it was in the right place and then they also wanted to make sure everything was good with Surgery. One bright note was that I got to see the surgeon that was on my case when I had my bowel obstruction, Dr Eifferman. He was concerned about the balloon and wanted to make sure I could tolerate having a balloon type feeding tube. It was nice to talk to him about my progress and about what has happened since the last time I saw him. He also mentioned another girl who has SMA syndrome and how she wasn't doing as well as he had hoped that she would be doing. He said that he thinks that SMAS just creates damage that can't be fixed and that unfortunately, is something that will plague some for the rest of their lives. Not the happiest thing to hear. I personally think that it just takes a lot longer then anyone has patience for to feel better. 

Anyway after he left, they cleared me to go home. I then had to contact my GI dr's office to see if they could get me a low profile tube. Long story short, she ended up ordering one through my medical supply company. Last Thursday, she placed it and now I am back to having a tube that doesn't really show through my clothing and isn't hanging off my body.