This week marked the end of the third week that Amos went – ahem, well… TUBELESS! For those who needed a second glance – yes! TUBELESS! So don’t you let your mind stray off tracks! We would really love for you to celebrate with us, so – what else could we say?
YAA-HOOO!!
Ah-ha, let’s stop right there. We haven’t buried the N-G tube yet because Amos is on trial, which means he isn’t completely off the tube when he’s still taking ten minutes to sip 25ml of water thickened with corn starch. Eeeww…I know, but truth is Amos simply isn’t ready to chug down a glass of pure water.
Still it’s something worth celebrating because it’s a significant start. We did an earlier post about Amos walking with almost the same title, and we thought it’d be a fun way to celebrate the little milestones along the way.
It is a wonderful reflection of how we felt over the past two years when the N-G tube had been an appendage that felt so alien and dismal to us, when bouts of pneumonia struck, when we learnt that we were feeding into his lungs. We had struggled and gone out in faith with our first post on Aspiration, and we cannot describe our joy when Amos started sipping consistently from the cup these past weeks.
We ended that first post by saying he would get there.
And we thank God he's now getting there.
Another reason to celebrate? The tube is gone and Amos’ nasal-mania went along with it. You see, he has quite a penchant for something slippery up his nose and you wouldn’t believe how many times he has drawn his tube in and out of his nostril like the bow of a violin. He drooled heavily with each draw and we’ve lost count of how many times we had to re-insert his tube, check for placement using a stethoscope and test the PH of his aspirate to make sure the tube ended up in his tummy and not his lungs.
Funny thing is…Amos had gotten so addicted and inured to tube-pulling that he actually enjoyed the process of intubation when we probably would be gagging our throats out.
We’re going to work real hard on his cup-drinking and although we’re taking four times as long as we took to tube-feed him, we’re definitely not missing the tube. Granted…it’s still a trial. There might be complications, there might be surprises.
But he’ll get there.
So as a celebration of this tremendous milestone we’d like to leave you with a cartoon of Amos’ little performance.
Based on a true account…and dedicated to all the brave Tubies out there.
Enjoy!