James’ morning nurse was concerned that his NJ-tube was loose because it was measuring at 53 instead of 48 (nose to tip). The NJ-tube is the nasal tube that goes past his stomach and into the small intestine. They did an x-ray and confirmed that it was in place and to continue with feeds. They also want to change up his feeds a little bit. He is currently getting 55 ml over 3 hours, which comes out to roughly 18 ml an hour. They want to try slowing the feed down to 14 ml an hour and extend the time to 4 hours. He will be getting roughly the same amount of food, just over a longer time period.
At 4:00 pm James was back on oxygen and off food because his saturation levels (sats) kept dropping. The doctors and nurses think that the NJ-tube is in place, but maybe not far enough.
A pediatric general surgeon stopped in to talk with us about a procedure they are going to do on Monday. She called it a pH probe, but its official name is an esophageal pH test. This test measures the pH or the amount of acid that flows into the stomach during a 24-hour period. Once this test is complete, they will look over the results, talk with us on Wednesday and James could have a G-tube put in on Friday.
When Stacy and I came back from dinner at around 7:00 pm, James was off oxygen and the NJ- and NG-tubes had been pulled out. One of the NICU nurses was about to try to place the NJ-tube again. The process of placing the NJ-tube started at around 8:00 pm, and after multiple attempts, lots of patience, and 2 x-rays, they confirmed that it was in place at 11:30 pm. They will try feeding him again with the 14 ml over 4 hours rate. Fingers crossed he can stay off the oxygen.
As the title of this post says, we are at Day 29 in the NICU. James has been in the NICU for almost a month, although it seems A LOT longer than that! It’s been a very long 29 days. But here’s Stacy, still smiling:
