Day 1

Thursday, May 1

On Thursday, Dr. Forman called James to say I was ready to come home, so after work Jenny & James came to get me. Dr. Forman talked to them, apologized for not being clear about what a feeding tube entailed, and explained a lot of stuff about my tube to them. He told them it would take 2 weeks for the tube to heal up to my stomach wall, and during that time I would need to wear an e-collar, a baby onesie or other such garment to cover my tube and keep it from getting snagged on anything, take antibiotics and once a day have Neosporin applied to the area where the tube entered my body. He was very reassuring to them.

After the doctor left, the tech brought me into the room. I was wearing a clear plastic e-collar and some kind of homemade ribbed body stocking made from who-knows-what (a sock? a sleeve from a shirt?). The tech showed Jenny & James the actual procedure of taking the cap off the end of the tube, and using a syringe to give me water; she was very blasé about everything and Jenny & James didn’t feel as reassured anymore. But they grabbed me in my carrier and the bag full of canned k/d (special kidney diet food), syringes, Clavamox (antibiotic drops), and extra tube caps and away we went.

On Thursday night James blended up the canned food with water and together he & Jenny gave me my first feeding. It went OK until Jenny put the Neosporin around the wound, and then I cried and tried to swipe her so she would cut it out. Since Dr. Forman had emphasized that they should be aware of signs of infection, including pain, redness, and discharge, that worried Jenny, but she figured it probably hurt since I had just had the tube inserted the day before.