It’s taken two full weeks, but I’m more or less back to the baseline I was at when I got listed… the day before I got the feeding tube. While I can’t say I’m pain-free, the nerve in the ab muscle that they desecrated with the tube has died off and isn’t sending me over the edge without massive drugs. Still tender and the hole/tunnel itself is very tender, but it’s massive progress that’s unmeasurable compared to when I came out of anesthesia.
After our last steak night I posted about, we ate the two aged bacon-wrapped filet mignon we bought the same day. Oh my! IF that was my last rare steak ever, I’ll be a very happy man it was that steak. I got my wife’s to a perfect mid-well to well-done, just how she likes and mine was delectable. Shoot, I was going to make it the featured image but that’d look weird on the homepage, so enjoy these.
Tube feeding
As a result of learning our lesson with the heavy meal and then tube feeding making me feel awful before we went to feeding tube clinic, we skipped feeding for the steak and for a couple of days while I ensured that Cipro was not an influence on anything leaving my body. We doubled my super pro-biotics that really made a difference for me when we switched brands and I was beyond normal within 48 hours!
Two nights ago, we resumed feeding with 2 bottles instead of 4 (500mL) AND decreased the flow from 120mL/hr to 60mL/hr. I didn’t get more than a couple of winks of sleep but I was only mildly uncomfortable, though my burps still felt like they were coming from well past my stomach. I also felt like the formula was going to come right back out as it went in, but I was wrong, so it was a big win! I was seriously happy.
My biggest issue with the night was a result of the equipment we have. The food bag has a very short tube – like 5 feet long. Once up on the pole and connected to the pump, I have about 18″ of play when I sit in the leather chair in the living room. I didn’t even feel like it was enough to be safe if I rolled over if we pushed the coffee table out of the way to sleep on the leather couch. However, the leather is the other issue: I’ve been a nuclear body heat sleeper my whole life and I just sweat like crazy any time I nap on our furniture.
Before we loaded up the food last night, we took a moment to lower the pole so the pump is <2 feet off the floor so I could sleep on the floor on a blanket and use my fluffy pillow. I slept almost all night! We used 2 bottles again but set it at 90mL/hr so it didn’t finish after 5am. It woke me up at 3:00am beeping that it was done. I flushed my access tube, closed the button, took more enzymes, and slept until the baby woke us up at 5:45am. I didn’t have any nasty burping or feeling like it was running through me, so I’m greatly encouraged to continue night feedings.
Work and business
It was a good and bad week. Lost a client whose site I was working on since January right before my hospital stay that got my evaluation process started. He didn’t want to “get mixed up in my personal business.” I was absolutely floored by this reaction since he was about the 10th client I’d told.
I moved on to the people who do love my work and quickly got their stuff back in motion. I may have overdone it because I felt like I was about to lay down sick at the end of the day yesterday, but I got enough sleep to fight it off. This morning I finished a large set of code blocks and image editing for my favorite client and I feel very accomplished with that feat… so I’m watching movies at my desk now.
To end my week, I got a big lift in spirits. My hosting company, WP Engine, sent me a gift basket from Harry & David yesterday. To receive such a thoughtful gift from the founder, CEO, support lead, and marketing lead, who are all dear friends since 2013… it almost made me cry.
Still waiting
So with everything basically where it was 2 weeks ago, plus 1,000 calories at night and a lot of care to protect my belly from the boys, life’s moving on and we’re just waiting for the call. Every phone ring brings excitement and disappointment. I feel like I’m missing out on everything (like Boy’s first baseball game of the year and I still haven’t seen Logan yet), but there will be plenty of living large soon enough.
It will be best for everyone involved if this happens in April, so let’s do this. I promise to not do an April Fool’s about the call. If we say it, it’s actually happened.
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