Monday 2nd October
Monday Donell sat down at his table to eat his dinner, and because of him being on steroids, they make him very hungry. He started to eating his food, but halfway through he said he didn’t want any more. We didn’t think anything of it, he then said can I have something else to eat, so I gave him some more food. As he was eating he started to heave, he then vomited everything that he had eaten that day. In this, though, you could see that he wasn’t chewing his food cause there were chunks in there, it was like he was finding it hard to chew.
The next morning we played safe with him, we gave him weetabix because he didn’t have to chew that, he did well with it because he had two and ate the lot, but next thing you know, Donell started being sick again so we said to him just water for now.
We went out for the day, Donell was happy to drink the water but again he said he didn’t want anymore then next minute you know, he’s been sick again. We got him home and phoned his foot prints nurse, they're there to help us with Donells needs, advice and support, they just said to take him straight to hospital. By this time, Donells consultant had heard he was in and came to check on him, we told him about how Donell had new symptoms and he just said he wanted to keep him in until his treatment starts and that Donell would have to have a Nasogastiric tube put in.
Nasogastiric Tube!
Donell had this tube put in the following day. The tube that was put in is made from a soft material called silicone and is specially designed for feeding. It enters through the nose and into the stomach, Donell took it really well, once this was done the nurses said that us as parents would have to train on how to look after his feeding tube and to keep it clean.
The nurses gave us a training pack, which required us to learn/ do: -
- Why the child needs the tube
- Understanding of the relevant anatomy and tube position
- Hygiene, washing of the hands technique
- How to store the feeds, having it at room temperature
- That us as parents are familiar with all the equipment being used, and storing it away.
By the 23rd of October we were signed off to go home.