Since my GI tract is more than a bit of a dick for the past couple....decades....and after umpteen failed meds to try to help, my medical team and I decided to put in a feeding tube. I was scheduled to get a GJ tube the end of October.
It's a dual tube that goes to my stomach and then onto my jejunum in my small intestine.
I was told several times that the surgery may not be able to be completed in two procedures and it may take three. So of course during the surgery stuff didn't go as planned. Only the G part of the tube was placed which doesn't help me much at all since we're trying to bypass my stomach for eating when it's really bad.
But the worst part of the surgery was a secondary complication NO ONE had seen before. Where the tube was put in it is messing with a bunch of nerves that control sensation and muscle contractions in the left side of my ribs, abdomen, left shoulder and arm. I woke up screaming from the procedure and it took the hospital hours to get my pain under control. This was after I told 7 different people at the hospital prior to the surgery that I have a very weird reaction to pain after surgery. They were baffled and I was in hell. OMG it was awful. Then I was in excruciating pain for 12 days after the surgery until the nerves and muscles finally started to calm down.
This is me hiding from all the things in the hospital!!
Seriously this procedure was supposed to be simple. It was very much not simple and left me with a fair amount of PTSD floating around in my head afterward. I go back to GI today for a follow up and I'm not real excited about it.
Lordy it's been a struggle.
But on the bright side I am able to feed into my stomach when I don't want to eat. AND I got an awesome unicorn bag to keep all of my feeding tube stuff in so it makes me smile!
Here's to a smoother second procedure which will hopefully be scheduled in the next few weeks!!
Hope you guys are all doing wonderful and I'm SOOOO ready to be back to finding my new normal after all of this! ♥
Decadently Yours,
Jennifer Kacey
Jennifer Kacey is a writer, mother, and business owner living
with her miniman in Texas and New York. She sings in the shower, plays piano in her
dreams, and has to have a different color of nail polish every week. The
best advice she’s ever been given? Find the real you and never settle
for anything less.
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