G-tube Removal!

Yep, back in the hospital for another surgery. The doctors visits and surgeries seem never ending sometimes but this one we had been looking forward to for a very long time. On Monday the 17th we went in at 7:30am to prep Aidan for surgery at 9:00. Well, things were rough from the very beginning. Apparently there weren't enough recovery rooms so we had to wait until 10:30. You can imagine how hard it is to entertain a 1 year old for 3 hours in a hospital room.

Getting bored...

Good news is that we wore him out with all of our playing around that he fell asleep so I was able to carry him right into the operating room and lie him on the table and watch as the anesthesiologist put him into an even deeper sleep.
We took one final picture of the g-tube to remind us of the things we so often take for granted. Many tears were shed during the process of teaching Aidan to eat. I was so happy to see it go.
Aidan, once again, was furious when he came out of surgery. I couldn't blame him though. He had these casts on his arms to keep him from bending his elbows so that he wouldn't pull out the probe that they put in his nose, down his throat and into his stomach.

The pH probe was connected to this little monitor to check for reflux. Because of the chance that he might pull the probe out I had to spend the night at the hospital with both kids. What a nightmare that was! I only got 2 hours of sleep because I had to stay awake if Aidan was awake to make sure he didn't pull the probe out.

He did not sleep well in the hospital at all.

Maya, on the other hand, slept like an angel most of the night. It almost seem like she knows that she need to be low maintenance when we are at the hospital for Aidan because for the most part she sleeps through everything. She is so funny. Anytime she gets a little startled when she is sleeping, she tenses her arms and spreads out her fingers. She cracks us up.

So, we survived the night and were discharged the following morning. I was soooo ready to go home and soooo happy to be done with that...so I thought!! The next day we got horrible news. The monitor was defective! It didn't record ANYTHING!! Yes, this does mean that we have to do it again and yes I did cry.

Maya wasn't too happy about it either. The good news is that the g-tube is gone. Only one more surgery to go. The trach removal is scheduled for December 4th.

Update: 6-18-11 ~ I've noticed that several people have been led to this blog post by googling "g-tube removal". Since this post Aidan's trach was removed and I had another baby that also had a trach. If you have any questions or just need support, please leave a comment with your e-mail address. I would love to be a source of support and help in any way:)