All the chicks back home

Ok.... here goes....

So we go in Monday (8/17) to the doctor all convinced in our little minds that Claire did not need a "g" button (feeding tube). We had our extensive list of questions in mind and reasons why we thought she did not need this. After spending considerable amount of time with the doctor and quite a few tears on my part. We were convinced that this was the right thing at the right time to do for Claire. So we went straight to the hospital to be admitted. Claire was scheduled for
"g" button surgery and a fundoplication (fix her esophagus for reflux) on Wednesday.

So now what are we going to do with the other girls? Grandma an Pappaw took them to Oklahoma for the week. Fun things planned to keep them occupied. Thanks so much!

Surgery went as planned and she did just great. And she has continued to do well. We thought we would get to come home Saturday, but just after Russ and mom took our stuff to the car they came in one more time to check vitals to find out that Claire was running 102 degree fever! yikes! No going home for us. So she had to be febrile free for 24 hours, so we got to come home today. And Hope and Molly came home too! Boy was I glad to see them.

So what does this "g" button mean for us?
Well Claire no longer gets any liquid by mouth including her medicine. Her "g" button is slightly below her ribs on her left side. We open the port to insert her medicine and to give her bolus drinks of either water and/or a supplement mix for now. She gets these bolus drinks 6x a day to add up to the amount of liquid they have determined she needs. We had been so concerned how Claire would handle not drinking any more because she always seemed thirsty or like she just got comfort from her cup. Well she has not once cried out for a drink or done her open mouth "I'm thirsty" signal. Apparantely she truly was thirsty and we were not adequately giving her enough, or she was aspirating it or she was spitting it up.

Now we have a contented child... no spit up, no chest pain from reflux or aspiration, no thirst, no major crying...... Wow!