3:51am April 16, 2013

OMG the G part of my GJ tube is wonderful.

I was just in so much pain I was contemplating whether I belonged in the emergency room.

Checked for residual food in my j tube, which I’d just gotten finished feeding with. Nothing. Meaning the food wasn’t, as I feared, hanging around in my intestines and causing mayhem.

Became very, very puzzled.

Went back to the bedroom.

Saw the green (my case manager has a sense of humor) cup marked Burp Cup.

Emptied a bunch of fluid from my stomach into the burp cup. Presumably a bunch of gas, too.

Suddenly all the pain was gone.

Well not all. But now it just hurts around my incision, not in weird spots that shouldn’t be hurting that bad.

Need to remember I now basically have a valve I can release stomach pressure in.

I thought it would be gross. But really… when you aspirate multiple times per week, and have to cough up stomach acid and bile out of your lungs for hours? Just looking at stomach acid and bile is not so gross anymore. Certainly not so gross as tasting it for hours and having to avoid throwing up while coughing the stuff up.

Particularly it doesn’t look too gross when it’s being drained into a cup the exact color of the stomach acid and bile, so it looks clear and not disgusting. Hell, my case manager has a very weak stomach for medical stuff and even she can handle burping my g tube.

This is a steep learning curve but its totally worth it. And I’m glad I talked them into a GJ tube instead of a J tube, because I wouldn’t have this pressure valve effect with just a J tube.

A lot of other stuff has happened today too. It’s one reason I couldn’t write before. Just too much happened and it was too much to take in and I’m wiped out. I had to sleep three or four times before I could even think of posting my cat pictures and stuff.

A long time ago I knew someone with a cecostomy button, and she talked about now if she got gas she could just open it up and the gas would come out. This is the exact same thing except its stomach gas, not intestinal gas. And it’s amazing how really bad gas on top of gastroparesis pain on top of post-surgical pain can make me think I need to go to the emergency room, when all I need to do is burp the g tube.

It’s just such a new thing to be doing, and totally new to be doing it without nurses reminding me every few hours, that I don’t automatically think to do it yet. Oh and also the texture of my abdomen where I burped it went from rock hard and bloated to soft afterwards. Yay.

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