Post-op Day 4

Nathan is still holding strong. He's stable and for now that is still all we want. His oxygen has been good, it hasn't dropped in a while and that is great. It looks like later today he is going to go off the floor to get his g-tube turned into a j-tube. That means that when he is fed the food will bypass his stomach and go directly into his jejunum, the second part of his small intestine. The doctors want to do that to make it safer for him to "eat" rather than being in IV nutrition for the next few days.

I had to make it clear to the dr that even if they are able to get a j-tube in he IS NOT going home with that and he will be going home with a g-tube. It took us a very long time to get him transitioned from a j-tube to a g-tube and we aren't interested in going back. It's OK as a temporary thing but it's not going to be long-term. The team just thinks with the g-tube he will be more likely to aspirate since he is paralyzed, no muscles in his body are working and that includes the ones involved with keeping food where it belong and preventing reflux. Hopefully they are right and he will be safe with the j-tube. I'm not sure when he is going to get that done, or if it will even happen today. A lot needs to be coordinated to get a kid on a ventialtor off the ICU floor.