The Tubie Drama

Photo credit childrenshospital.org

Last night we had a little tubie drama.  It has been four months since surgery for Benson.  The surgeon that placed his tube told us to have it changed six weeks post op and x-rayed to make sure the placement was correct and everything had healed such that the stomach was sealed off and nothing was leaking out.  The surgeons here do it a little different and said to just call for an appointment when we were ready to change it.  So we hadn't been to have it checked since surgery.
Last night, we were all done doing the bedtime routine and ready for the kiddos to crash.  I was holding Benson and got up to get a binki for Brigham.  I don't know what his tube got caught on but I somehow pulled his button right out.  I'm sure it hurt.  It had 2ml of water in the balloon so it wasn't like it just slipped right out.  But 2ml isn't enough to keep it secure because it should have closer to 5ml of water.  It was obviously time for a change, but for our first time something less emergent would have been nice.
I grabbed our foley catheter thinking we would need to go to the ER to get an Xray and check for correct placement.  We were told that we would have 30 minutes if it was ever pulled out before it would start closing.  THIRTY MINUTES! We put the foley in quickly but immediately saw we were getting stomach acid coming back so we started to wonder if we could just do the button ourselves. 
I attended a class at Primary Childrens explaining how to change the button and proper care.  I watched and listened, but I never did anything.  I never even pushed water in the little balloon.  Lucky for me, I have Joe Cool for a husband and medical emergencies don't phase him.  I was actually proud of myself for doing the foley catheter.  Even though I was shaking and even though it slid in way easier than the button.  But Jon did the button.  We slid the foley out, lubed up the button, and slid it in.  Then filled the balloon.  No ER visit necessary.  We listened to his stomach while pushing water and heard lots of good stomach sounds.  But even still I was slightly nervous and woke several times to make sure his night feeding was indeed going into his stomach. 
This morning Benson woke up at 10am.  I think the night's adventure wore him out.  But he was happy and said his tubie felt fine.  Although, he definitely didn't want me to touch it. I think I apologized 100 times last night, I'm lucky he forgives so easily.