Saturday May 2

When I called this morning to see how dad was doing I knew something had happened but didn't understand the nurse. I rushed to the hospital only to find out that I had really misunderstood what Nurse S was saying on the phone.

Somehow dad managed to pull his feeding tube out. It's not as bad as it sounds, really. The nurse said that somehow dad pulled out the PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostom) I found this illustration it's not the best but you can see what I am talking about. On the lower right corner of the illustration is a close up of the feeding tube, this is what dad pulled out. See just under the skin is a "balloon" that helps hold it in place.

For right now -- today anyway -- Dr B put in a steril tube (not a feeding tube) of some sort into the hole that is there in dad's side. Right now they can use it to give dad certain medicines and can feed him through it. Dr B didn't want to replace the feeding tube right away because of trama (either from it coming out or having it replaced). Replacing it can be done by the doctor right in dad's hospital room, no huge deal.

Yesterday dad got ice chips. Today the nurse said he couldn't have them (which got dad mad). Nurse S said that when Dr B said to start letting dad have ice chips he forgot about how the treacha was in placed in the throat with some kind of balloon that is attached. Now that I think of it dad did have some coughing spells when he had the ice chips yesterday.

Dad is pretty depressed. I finally got a doctor to give orders for an antidepressant for dad. They have started him on 10 mg of Lexapro. I don't care what they give him as long as they give him something.

Because of the thing with the feeding tube they didn't get dad out of the bed today. I can understand he went through a lot (they had to do an xray with dye to make sure the doctor had placed the new tube in the right place and that nothing was damaged when the feeding tube got pulled out).

Dad is alert. He tries his best to communicate but it is really hard to read his lips. There are times when I do get what he is trying to say. He gets upset that I can't figure out what he is trying to say most of the time. I feel sorry for him. There seems to be a lot he wants to say.


Keep those prayers going up for dad and me.

Kathy