G-Tube Surgery
posted on 10/08/2008
Bennett will have his g-tube surgery tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 11am, so your prayers for the procedure and the doctors who care for him are greatly appreciated. We're relieved in a way that it is just the g-tube and not also the nissen (the wrapping of the stomach around the lower part of the esophagus to prevent reflux) as we thought we may have to have. If the nissen is ever needed, then we can always have this done. For now, though, it's just the g-tube.
We're told the procedure will last around 30 minutes to an hour, and Bennett will stay in the hospital for 24 hours afterward. He should be able to come home by Friday afternoon, g-tube and all. The team of doctors that is placing the tube is very experienced with the procedure and they have assured us that things should go very smoothly.
Thanks again for all your prayers. Overall we feel like this is a good "middle of the road" way to go to help Bennett's feeding. It's not as simple as the NG tube through his nose, but it's also not as invasive or complicated as the tube with nissen. Bennett has some good friends with their own g-tubes, so he's looking forward to learning all the "tricks of the trade" when he sees them.
We'll try and post after his procedure.
Travis, Kelly, and Bennett
*UPDATE - October 9th, 5pm*
Bennett's procedure went very smooth this morning and he is currently sleeping away in his room at the hospital. They will give him morphine and tylenol to help with any pain he has over the next day or two, and an IV with antiobiotics will be running as well. We hope they'll let him come home tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, but they may keep him until Saturday. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that all is well and that the boy is sleeping soundly (hopefully for the rest of the night!).
