Maybe Not Quite Long Enough

CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of medical nature. Talk of feeding tubes. You’re responsible for your own time on the Internet and you get to choose where and how you spend it. If reading medical posts will upset you please do not read further. If you’re interested, please go on.

In my most recent post, I had said “It’s only been four days, so it’s not been that bad, but that’s bad enough.” And I mean, maybe I just jinxed myself or something. I don’t know. >.< It’s just that I was fairly sure that this was going to be fine. ::Shrugs:: The first misfire happened the week before last. I went to the hospital having no idea if I was going to need to stay overnight or not, and the surgery I was about to have didn’t make me nervous at all.. But being alone in any hospital at all for any reason without Master Pravus always does for reasons. And I mean, there was no guarantee I would need to stay, but my doctor had mentioned “good chance” so I was nervous.

The plan was to resite my feeding tube with a special “new” feeding tube that was in a completely different style of tube! The new type of tube would require a lot less maintenance and have a lot less problems because they don’t dislodge as easily, but, “They’re hard to put it, so you have to be ‘dead asleep.'” Works for me. I don’t want to be awake for this thank you. It did involve ordering the tube ahead of time though, and right now, the pandemic is causing a shortage of many types of medical equipment. Relevant to me is: feeding tubes and contrast dyes. 🙁

Anyway. I got to the procedure day. I get to the hospital. They wouldn’t let Master Pravus in because of COVID restrictions (which I totally understand even if I’m completely uncomfortable being alone, that’s a story for another day), and they get me undressed and prepped for surgery. Literally start running an IV to my port. I’m seen by my anesthesia team three times. The chief anesthesia lead on the team working with me is sitting right next to my bed waiting on the OK to take me back to the OR. And then they came back to tell me they couldn’t do it? So everyone leaves. And I’m left there with my broken feeding tube. It was honestly one of the worst feelings. I mean, imagine thinking your tube is going to get fixed, and then- it literally isn’t. Awful.

I’ve had a lot of surgery but that was the first time in my life that anyone had ever told me that they didn’t have the part they needed to fix me. He apologized personally and told me they had told him my tube came in but they looked around all morning and they didn’t have it after all. 🙁 So no tube for me. Then the only option while we wait for one of the special tubes to come in is to go get my tube swapped out for the normal kind of tube that I have now, which is just a normal J tube. And like, that would be done at.. Interventional Radiology. And I hate it there. Things. Just rarely go well there.

So I went back home, and I had to wait a few more days. They got me in though, and Master Pravus was allowed to stay at the big hospital despite COVID percentages being 31% high in the USA right now as I type this. ::Shrugs:: I think it probably has something to do with parking. They can’t exactly kick people out when valet parking is the only form of parking they have available to people. Where will the people go? I was incredibly nervous about going to this IR department, but my doctor called ahead because there were a few extra things he needed them to do. They refused to do the extra things of course and now I have to have him do them. Annoying. ::Eyeroll:: Anyway. I tried to remind myself that even though things aren’t always great at IR, it’s really just a straightforward tube exchange and that even though my doctor mentioned that there was a problem with my abdominal wall on the CT that, it should probably be fine. I just tried to tell myself not to worry about it and that when it’s over my tube will be fixed. A broken balloon is always fixed by a new feeding tube. This is literally the answer.

So we went. They swapped the tube. They bandaged it up really, really a lot. In retrospect it seemed ridiculous how much they bandaged it up. Normally it requires no bandaging at all and just like, a thin piece of gauze behind the bumper. Once I got home I couldn’t even stand up. I had leaked through my underwear, pants, dress, it dripped down my shoes, and all the way up the stairs there was a trail of ooze. I called IR immediately and they said “Just use gauze.”

I told them that this was not right, in no way could gauze remedy this- it’s completely abnormal and they said “Well, it’s not our fault because you didn’t have the tube placed here and we don’t have your images. You probably need to have the tube resited go back to your surgeon.”

And like. I watched my doctor fax the CT to them the day they didn’t do my surgery. >.>

We were going to resite the tube but they didn’t have the type of tube we needed.

It was a Friday and I now needed to wait until Monday to talk to anyone who knows what they’re doing. I shouldn’t have been crass but I got angry on the phone while Master Pravus was going through literally boxes and boxes of abdominal pads to help me while my hands were busy with the phone that I cut the guy off who was saying garbage like “well it’s not my fault…” and I said “IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S WRONG THAT’S FINE THEN.” I was really pissed. We’ve been buying all the surrounding stores out of boxes of abdominal pads and I can’t feed through my tube or eat anything. We’re putting my potassium in and some meds but so much is spilling out we don’t know how much good it’s doing. What a joke.

Why on Earth a hospital has an On-Call number for their IR department that leads to the doctor who did your procedure… But then literally the only thing he does is tell you it isn’t your fault instead of try to solve the problem is beyond me. If it was up to me, there would be no Interventional Radiology department at any hospital at any time. You shouldn’t have a department of people that can perform procedures and then not be held responsible for fixing them when something goes wrong. Thankfully my surgeon is going to fix this, but meanwhile I am waiting with a broken feeding tube at this time.

It’s a terrible situation. I have such strong feelings on Interventional Radiology. I think it should be disbanded and most people that are sent there should be sent to surgery. And if they’re having a procedure done that doesn’t require anesthesia, then fine! I’ve gone to a surgeon and had minor stuff done with absolutely no anesthesia of any kind. But Interventional Radiology is a joke. Send people down to the radiology department for their X-rays and placement studies and if they want to practice surgery they can become surgeons! >.> End rant! >.<