Harvey's Tube
There must be a better way! Harvey has a nasal gastro tube that runs into his stomach. At night and in the afternoon, the end of the tube is connected to a pump and drip feeds a mixture of Liquigen and Monogen into his stomach. Harvey has difficulty with fat absorption as any person in his condition would have. The Liquigen contains MCT (medium chain triglycerides) oil which helps in absorption. The Monogen is a milk protein based powder also high in MCT.
The problem is the tube has come out of his nose twice in the last week. As we get into the cold season and and colds and flus become more prominent, a runny nose makes Harvey reach for his tube more frequently.
Each time the tube comes out, it needs to be inserted as soon as possible or else Harvey will not get his nutrients for the day. This means a visit to the hospital and usually takes 4 hours by the time we go through the triage process and a nurse from the children's ward is available to carry out the procedure. Rather than driving all the way to Westmead childrens hospital for the reinsertion to be done, we go to our local hospital. We have learnt that we need to keep a stock of new tubes as the local hospitals do not necessarily keep them.
The other day I was surprised the nurse wanted to reinsert the old tube, rather than putting a new tube in. After discovering that they cost $60 each, I understood why.
A new tube has a steel wire running through the centre of the plastic tube which is tehn taken out once the tube has been inserted. This makes it easier for the tube to direct it in to the stomach. On rare occassions, the tube could go down the lung. This is usually checked afterwards by syringe some fluid out and testing with pH paper. If the pH is in the region of 3-4, the liquid is therefore stomach juices and is therfore considered to be in the right place. Some hospitals will carry out an x-ray just to make sure.
On one occassion a nures attempted to insert the tube without its inner metal cable and as Harvey was swallowing , the end had popped out of his mouth!
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