Another decision for a better life: J-Tube

On Friday Oct. 15 Hunter underwent another surgery.  This time for a J-tube placement separate from his G-tube (he had a combo one before called a GJ-tube).  He is currently home and doing good so far.

  The reasoning behind the separate tubes is because the combine one causes many difficulties and problems that parents find it hard to maintain for their child.  If the tube breaks or stops working it's not an easy thing to replace yourself, you'll have to take your child to the ER and find a hospital or doctor that specializes in GJ-tube placements and not a lot of regular hospital can do that and often times you find yourself having to be transported to a Children's hospital or specialized hospital to have it replaced.

The reason for this is because the tubing isn't simple to place. A small tubing is threaded through the intestine.  The tubing his tiny and often times formula could not be mixed enough and could get the tubing clogged or the tubing could recoil back into the stomach without any reason.  Some Doctors find this to be a pain to deal with because of so many particular problems it causes.  So some Doctors suggest a J-tube separate from the G-tube and is positioned just below the G-tube button and the device is small like a G-tube button which parents can change or if it comes out they can replace without any need of a trip to the hospital unless needed to.

So that is what Hunter went for, a separate button for feeding.  At this time he has a temporary setting in now (pictures coming soon) and in a few weeks it will be replaced with a button.  He is still a bit uncomfortable and find it difficult to sit in his chair (it uncomfortable anyways.) and he does bare a new scar around his belly button but the Surgeon was able to go into old scars mostly for the procedure to minimize pain and to prevent any new scars needed.  He spent from Friday until Wednesday afternoon at Johns Hopkins. The staff was great with Hunter.

Hopefully we can get through the remaining healing process without anymore issues.