Tubes

Blaise has been off TPN since Saturday morning and everyone seems confident that it will stay that way. I realized yesterday when two different people made the same mistake that there's a little confusion in our terms. Blaise has two tubes at the moment: her g-tube, which is implanted in her stomach and that her milk feeds go through, and her PICC, the giant IV in her leg that her TPN and omegaven go through (a.k.a., "the line"). Or, more accurately, went through, since she's off the TPN and omegaven. We're hearing talk of removing the PICC today, so we may be down to one tube in the very near future.

When will the g-tube come out? Someday, but not anytime soon. She gets 2/3 of her feeds through this and 1/3 by bottle. She would love to get all of it by bottle, but that might be too much for her little gut to handle at once. Also, the continuous g-tube feeds are part of her long term intestinal rehab program. When we say that she's reached her goal, we just mean in terms of total volume. Blaise isn't cordless yet, but one tube is better than two (is better than a lot of other options).

We get the impression that many of Blaise's fans are more freaked out by the g-tube than by the PICC when, really, the PICC is much scarier to us. It's hard to maintain and poses huge risks for infection, clotting or clogging. An infection could lead to sepsis very quickly and a clot or clog would mean another surgery to replace the line. We couldn't be happier to hear that we're likely to lose it soon. The g-tube, on the other hand, is pretty easy to maintain and much more portable than the IV. So stop worrying; learn to love the g-tube.