G-Tube Surgery

Oaklynn had surgery to have her G-Tube placed on Tuesday September 25th.

We left at 5:30am and dropped little sister off at my parents and went to the children's hospital for our check-in time of 6am.

When we got to the hospital, we registered and were taken to a room where they got information about Oaklynn and had us change her into a gown.

We waited in that room for over an hour, until our surgery time of 8am. They then took us back to the procedure room. I sat on the bed and put Oaklynn down on it. They then put the mask over her face while we talked to her and sang to her. She was smiling while the mask was on. The mask smells very good (like strawberries) and Oaklynn kept sticking her tongue out trying to taste it, lol. Once she fell asleep, we went to the waiting room. 

We sat there for only about 20 minutes until the surgeon and the GI came to tell us that everything went OK. They were able to find a good spot to put the button and everything went great. They also took a biopsy of her esophagus because the GI wanted to check some things and figured she would do it while she was already in there.

Here is how they did the surgery...

What happens is they put her to sleep with gas. Once she is asleep, they int-abate her and then stick a tiny camera into her tummy through her mouth that has a flashlight on the end. They look in her tummy for a good place to put the button. Once the GI finds a good spot, she shines the flashlight from the inside of the stomach to the outside. When the surgeon sees the light, she sticks some kind of wire into the stomach from the outside. The GI sees the wire and grabs onto it with her scope. They pull the wire out through the mouth (so the wire is now going from her mouth, down into her tummy and out her tummy). They then attach the button and pull it down through her mouth and then pull it out of her tummy with the wire. Then they pull something that opens the button up and puts it right in place. If the GI wasn't able to see where to put the button from the inside, she would have had the surgeon take over and the surgeon would have had to make a few incisions and stick a couple cameras in to look around and find a good spot to put the button (they would have had to do this if the stomach wasn't in the right place or some organs were in the way of placing the button).

BELOW PICTURE IS NOT OAKLYNN.
This is a picture I found online. It is what it would have looked like if they had to make incisions in a few places and go in that way. We are VERY grateful they were able to find it from going through her mouth!

AGAIN, ABOVE PICTURE IS NOT OAKLYNN

We then got to go back to the recovery room to see her.

 She started waking up faster than expected, so they gave her a little more medication to keep her out a little longer. They let me pick her up and hold her to help comfort her.

We waiting in the recovery room for about an hour until we got admitted into the hospital. They then took us to our room to get settled in. Oaklynn fell back to sleep in my arms so we just cuddled on the bed for a while. My dad came to the hospital to hold Oaklynn so we could go get something to eat. When we got back, she was awake!

We just hung out in the room all day and watched TV. They didn't want to give her any food by mouth or tube yet. They ran IV fluids all day and through the night. Here are pictures of her new tube...

 Oaklynn got to hang out in bed and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Daddy all day

 Grandma and Grandpa Forsgren sent Oaklynn a "Get Well" balloon and a teddy bear (they also sent some goodies for Austin and I . . . THANKS)

I shared a bed with her over night. The pain medication kept her up and she wasn't able to sleep very well (plus she wasn't in her own bed). She kept waking up really scared throughout the night.

 The next day (Wednesday) we started fluid through her tube. They started with a round of pedialyte and did it very slowly to make sure she could hold that down before we started formula. About an hour after the pedialyte was in her system, they started on a low dose of the formula. 

Once we were done with that feeding, we had to wait 4 hours to make sure she kept it in her system. While we were waiting for the time to pass before we started the next feed, Oaklynn took a nap . . .

Aunt Shay came to visit (my sister) . . .

and we met a dog named Riley . . .

Finally we got to start the last formula feed. If all went well with this one, we got to go home! She watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse during the feed . . .

and took another nap . . .

Once the feed was done we started discharge paperwork and packed up. We finally got to leave at 6pm on Wednesday night. Oaklynn fell asleep as I was pulling out of the hospital parking lot. She went to bed when we got home and had a few night terrors that night. 

When she woke up the next morning, she was sore and in pain. We had 2 therapies that morning (taking it easy) and she had two of her cousins come over to play. She LOVED playing with her cousins. They always know how to make her smile.

She had an OK day. She didn't like when we picked her up and moved positions, I think it hurt her. She was holding all her feeds down and doing great. We put her to bed that night and she fell asleep quickly. When I checked on her in the video camera, I noticed her sheets looked darker in a spot. We both ran in a she had thrown up all over herself and her bed and was just lying there in silence. We felt horrible and were so sad that she was lying in her throw up. I took her to give her a bath and when I did, I noticed that she also had diarrhea. Once she was clean, we gave her some pedialyte through her button and she fell asleep in my arms. 

The next morning (Friday) she was VERY happy . . . full of smiles. We were more careful that day about how to pick her up and carry her to not hurt her stomach. She did great taking her feeds and even ate a little by mouth. She had a great day until about 5pm when she threw up a TON during one of her feeds.We bathed her again and gave her some pedialyte and let her play in her room. I called the doctor and she said that if Oaklynn wont eat anything and goes diarrhea again, we need to take her to the ER. After we ate dinner we went in to get her to try one more feed before bedtime (we were going to try to do it slower than usual). When Austin went in to get her, she had gone diarrhea. We cleaned her up and I cuddled on the couch with her while Ausitn went to get more pedialyte. While he was gone, she started falling asleep while we were cuddling so I put her in bed. She was asleep within a couple minutes. 

Saturday morning I gave her a breast milk bottle when she woke up and an egg. I then let her play until she started doing her tired moan. I put her in bed and she started crying really hard. I went in and gave her a couple more ounces of breast milk through her tube really quick. She then started SCREAMING. I let her cry for about 20 minutes but she wasn't calming down so I gave her some tylenol. She screamed for another 20 minutes and then finally calmed down and went to sleep. She slept for 3 HOURS (she usually only takes a 30 minute nap). Gave her a pedilyte feed after waking up and she held it down good. A few hours later gave her a piece of bread and another breast milk feed and she did great. 

She got a package in the mail from her Grandma and Grandpa Cooley (and Great Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles). It sure did cheer her up!

She went to bed early Saturday night and slept great.

Sunday she was able to eat some more food by mouth. Gave her one formula tube feed in the middle of the day and she didn't throw it up (YAY). She was very sore and in pain today but overall was a MUCH better day than the last few. Lets hope we keep going up hill from here. I know it will take a while till we get the feeds down and we can start doing bolus (a large amount and quicker than a pump feed) so we can get these feeds done faster.

I am so proud of her for being so tough. She never ceases to amaze me and teach me so much.