Day 18, July 7th

My Dad is pretty sedated today. They removed his NG tube that went from his nose, down his esophagus and into his stomach for feeding purposes and placed a PEG tube in through his stomach. Here is some information on what a PEG tube is:
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tubes (PEG tube)
A percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube (PEG tube) goes into your stomach through an opening made on the outside of your abdomen. This procudure is done under sedation. To put a PEG tube in you have an endoscopy. This means the doctor puts a tube with a camera on the end through your mouth, down your food pipe and into your stomach. They can then see where to place the PEG tube, which is put in through the skin of your abdomen. This type of tube is used for people who have long term problems with eating and swallowing. The feeds usually run for most of the day through a pump, with a break of a few hours to give the stomach a rest. But sometimes feeds can go in over 24 hours at a low rate. If you are having feeds at home, your dietician will guide you about how much feed you need and the timings.
He had to be sedated for the PEG tube so he's been really groggy all day. The advantage to the PEG tube is that it is much more comfortable than the NG tube. They had sutured his NG tube into his nose and he kept trying to pull it out, so you can imagine that it was pretty uncomfortable for him.
I'm not sure how his speech therapy session went, but I will try to get details and post about it.