11-12 Mar 09

11 Mar 09
I was feeding Charlene at 8pm when I saw that her stoma (button) is leaking from the sides. Dez put stoma adhesive powder. At 10pm, it was still leaking and quite wet so Dez put on the duodem in an attempt to make the stoma tighter. At 12 midnight, Charlene was straining by a lot and the milk that I just fed was coming out by quite a fair amount from the side of her stoma (button) and the duodem was already wet. Also, Charlene strained so much that it looked as if the whole stoma (button) was going to be pushed out. It was really scary. Dez decided that we would send Charlene to Children Emergency immediately in case things got worse.

Upon arrival, Charlene's temperature showed that she had fever (It's probably because I wrapped her too tightly and gave her blanket). The doctors on duty are not specialists with regards to the button so they suggest that Charlene be admitted for the surgical doctors to have a look (They also want to be safe cos of the temperature).

On our way up to the ward, Dez and I saw Charlene smile (We figured that it could be the aircon that is making her so happy).

12 Mar 09
The surgeon who operated on Charlene came to take a look and said that the stoma is not of concern. She will get the nurses to do something to stop the leakage. She also said that Charlene has got 2 other problems that would affect the stoma; the acid reflux and the emptying of her stomach is slow. She showed me how to put Charlene in the best position for feeding that would aid in a quicker emptying of the stomach.

I told her that Charlene strained a lot and how it looked like the whole stoma would be pushed out. I thought that she could be straining due to reflux. While acknowledging it, the surgeon said that she had seen cases whereby the child does not have reflux but keeps straining (she said probably due to neurological impairments). And the humid weather at home and the sudden new environment could have caused Charlene to strain as well.

The surgeon and the other surgical doctors were shocked by the black marks (some of them thought that it was a birthmark) on Charlene's stomach due to the leaking of silver nitrate when Dez last did it. The surgeon gave me a good scolding and said that silver nitrate cannot leak in this manner as it burns the skin.

In the afternoon, the nurse who bathed Charlene gave me another good scolding because I stupidly applied Desitin (diaper rash cream) in Charlene's vagina area. She had a hard time cleaning it and said that it could cause urine infection. I guess I was too tired and was not thinking when I did it cos I recalled one of the nurses telling me not to apply there. I also asked her how to clean Charlene's mouth and watched how she clean Charlene's ears.

Dez also learnt from the nurses to leave the feeding tube there for 2-3 mins after feeding for the milk to go further into the stomach. This could prevent the milk from coming out immediately to the surface when Charlene strained.

I thank God that Dez and I are given this opportunity to learn the mistakes that we have made. Indeed we are grateful that the mistakes we made did not cause much harm to Charlene. Perhaps God wanted to give us (and my father in law) time to rest and recharge ourselves as well.

Photo of Charlene in over-sized pants