12/20 we drove to Murray for another attempt at placing a new NG tube. I was super worried both days because placing the NG tube in September was the main aspiration issue that cause Lee to code and have a long hospital stay. I voiced my concerns to the NP, after 5 guide wires and about 45 minuites of trying to manipulate the feeding tube it finally was in place. The nurse practitioner had me come back and showed me the placement of the tube. He also talked to me for a while about the change in practice that the whole department went through in October. Lee was what they call a sentinel event: A sentinel event is defined by American healthcare accreditation organization The Joint Commission (TJC) as any unanticipated event in a healthcare setting resulting in death or serious physical or psychological injury to a patient or patients, not related to the natural course of the patient's illness. Lee aspirated contrast into his lungs that made him not able to get air into his lungs on his own, this is the reason he needed to be on a ventilator for so long. Due to this event the change of practice came about, they have changed the type of contrast that is used they changed from Gastrogrfin to isovue contrast, the contrast cannot be instilled until the practitioner has the tube into the stomach, if it is not in the stomach and the contrast is instilled it must be removed with the syringe until the contrast can no longer be seen on the X-ray. It made me feel better that through Lee's struggle and event something was done to protect future patients. it always makes me feel better that although Lee was harmed someone else life can be saved. Lee was lucky this event could have taken his life but with fast action on mine and the code teams action he is alive, I am just so happy that I was at the bedside waiting for him to return.
This is the type of feeding tube that was placed. This feeding tube is inserted in Lees nose goes through his esophagus through the stomach and ends in his small bowel.
Lee's feeding tube had been causing him discomfort for a while now he was to the point that he could not stand it any longer. We tried many things to help including cloroceptic spray, cepacol lozenges and lidocaine ointment for the inside of his nose. We kept his nose moist with saline spray and saline gel but nothing was helping. The feeding tube that was in was not made of a soft silicone but a plastic that had hardened.
12/19 we went into interventional radiology at Utah Valley hospital, after about a half hour and multiple tries the nurse practitioner was not able to place the tube, we also learned that the current feeding tube was only about 2 inches into his stomach. This is a risk for aspiration.
12/21 I called the liver team to see if they could get Lee in for a paracentesis before or after his scheduled MRI they found a spot for him in Riverton Utah. This was a new adventure for us we have not been to this hospital before. The team here was awesome to fit him in last minute. They did a great job getting him in and cares for well. They removed 5050 ML of fluid from his abdomen. He also needed to have 2 bottles of albumin the nurse was awesome to bet it in as fast as she could to get us on our way to Murray for Lee's scheduled MRI. We took off a little late but they were awesome to stay and gets Lee's MRI done even though we were an hour late. It has been a whirlwind of three days. This seems to be how our weeks go I work and run Lee here and there for this or that.
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