Don't you have a mannequin I could practice on?

Phillipians  4:13  I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

The tube feedings continued to go well.  It allowed Christopher to rest and grow.  He slowly began to gain a little weight.  We still had to drain his stomach of saliva and gas from time to time, but other than that he seemed to be doing great.

The doctors began to talk about him going home.  It was absolutely amazing and welcome news!  There were just a couple of issues that had to be resolved before he could be released from the hospital.   First, it  was important for us to learn how to protect the tube from becoming dislodged.  They trained us on how to change and reapply the tape.

Secondly, we needed to learn how to "vent" or empty his stomach for him.  That meant we had to learn how to put in the NG tube.  I was NOT excited about this at all.  I had seen the nurses and the doctors do it many times, but I couldn't ever imagine myself doing it.  It looked easy enough when they did it, but me do it? 

NG tube

The nurse told me that she would walk me through it.  She would explain what she was doing as she inserted the tube, and then it would be my turn.  I watched intently as she "walked and talked" me through it.  Then she handed me the tube and told me it was my turn.  I think I went completely white.  I told her that I was just not comfortable learning this on my child.  Don't you have a mannequin or something that I can practice on?  Isn't that how you learned to do it?  To my surprise she told me that in nursing school they practiced on each other.  My next question...can I practice on you?  As you might guess, the answer was no.  I had to learn on Christopher.  I had to do this in order for us to go home.

I knew it wasn't a normal part of the job description.  Mom's are expected to tie shoes and dry tears, NOT stick tubes down their children's noses.  I guess I wasn't the average mom, and Christopher definitely wasn't the average baby. 

As I started to put the tube down his nose, I just had to ask one more time.  Are you sure you don't have a practice dummy?   The nurse laughed a little then told me the secret was to put it in and move fast. Don't stop unless you meet resistance.  I looked at Christopher, apologized for having to learn this on him, and "moved fast."  Before I knew it, the tube was in.  I had done it.  It wasn't technically difficult, but it was emotionally traumatizing.  The nurse told me I was a natural, and that from now on I would be doing all the venting.  I would get in lots of practice before we went home.

That word was music to my ears.  It was almost time to go home, and I was beginning to feel confident that maybe I could do this after all.  I guess I'll just have to put an IV pole in the nursery and an NG tube in my diaper bag.

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

More tomorrow...