Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Feeling much better this morning.

Fun and games continue around here.  I kept Aaron home from school yesterday and today because he's continued to be "off."  Sunday evening I changed out his trach, yesterday I changed his filters and circuit on his ventilator.  There really hasn't been anything I could point to as the problem.  Just higher on his oxygen and a little (okay, sometimes a lot!) sad.  Yesterday, he actually acted like it might be a tummy bug, and there have been a couple others with it, too.  As far as germs go, that's actually an okay one for him.

See, other than not breathing as deeply because he's uncomfortable, it doesn't affect his lungs.  And frankly, my chunky monkey has a few calories he can spare.  So as long as his "outs" don't go faster than his "ins", he's okay.  He had a quite a few dirty diapers in about a 12 hour period from Sunday evening to Monday morning, and then he had a lot of tummy bubbles, too.

In fact, yesterday when I went to give him his 2 o'clock feeding, he looked really pale.  I thought, oh, no, here we go!  Then he started retching.  Once it was all over, he was still subdued, but acting (and looking) so much better.  At least better than before.

Yesterday evening, Michael's cub scout pack had a trip to the local fire station.  Yeah, we knew the guys.  I did warn them that they might want to try to sleep early 'cause he was on the bubble, and I wasn't sure if it was going to pop.

And then, because we weren't having enough fun yet, Ms. Grace (yeah, me again) had to miss seeing the curb as we left the station.  Yep, it smarts.  I managed to have enough presence of mind going down that I didn't try to catch myself with a locked arm. (Really great way to break your arm.)  But I did land on my left hand with my fingers splayed out and bent them back.  Nope, not broken, but very sore and swollen right now.  So I'm sporting a brace and trying to do a seven-fingered type.  This is SO NOT what I needed.  I really can't afford to take time off of work, but there's not much choice either.  I can't keep up with seven fingers.  Kinda need all ten for that.  So I've gotten an extension on my files due today and will be marked off for the rest of the week.  Really hoping by Monday that the pain and swelling have gone down enough to go back.  We need that paycheck.

This was taken a few months ago, but
you can see his button in his
upper abdomen.

And those guys at the station?  Well, if they got woke up, it wasn't us.  But I did get a call just after 3:30 a.m. Robin said he was in a lot of distress, and on my way out, I thought, "okay, here we go."  Turned out to be something we could handle though.  Somehow, he had managed to pull his g-tube button out.

See, we tell people that Aaron has two belly buttons, and one has a door in it!  That's how we feed him.  There's an extension we hook onto the button and the food flows directly into his stomach, bypassing his trachea/esophagus that isn't quite sure how to work.  

 Yeah, the button, the part that stays in him, or is supposed to stay in him, was out.  There's a balloon on the inside that's filled with water that keeps it in place.  It was full, but it still came out.  It's the first time he's managed to do that, (not that he hasn't tried before!), and it had to have hurt, a lot!  Fortunately, it hadn't been out for more than a couple of minutes and the new one went back in really easy.  That stoma (surgical hole) can start to close within five minutes and I'm so grateful we didn't have to take him in to have it dilated open again.

Then Aaron and Mommy had a long rocking time while he settled down to go back to sleep.  I love cuddling up with my bug.  And I love that really, since we bagged him on Sunday, the biggest excitement was easily something we could handle on our own.  Praying it stays that way.  And I think it will.  Right now, I'm planning on him going back to school tomorrow.  I know he misses it.

I am always ready to learn 

although I do not always like being taught.  

~Winston Churchill