What Is A Feeding Tube?

As promised, I am going to be posting everyday this week in honor of Feeding Tube Awareness. I hope to demystify what a feeding tube is and help educate people who are curious to know what it looks like and how it works.

There are many different kinds of feeding tubes. They come in different shapes and sizes. I will only be telling about Tennyson's tube specifically, since that has been my only experience with feeding tubes.

Feeding tubes are intimidating. They sound far more serious than they really are. All they really are is an alternative way of getting food into the body. Tennyson's gastrostomy tube (g-tube) is called a MIC-KEY button (pronounced "Mickey" like Mickey Mouse). It is located on her tummy and leads directly into her stomach.

She takes all formula, water, and medicine through her tube. She can still drink bottles by mouth but she only does so once a day, if she's up to it. I don't push her if she resists it because we are trying to make every experience with feeding and food a positive one.

Tennyson has had her g-tube for about 3 1/2 months. She doesn't have any noticeable scars from the procedure because it was done laparoscopic, meaning the surgeons made a tiny incision in her belly button and used a camera to see where to place the tube. They filled her abdomen with air and then made an incision in her stomach. The stomach lining and skin are all that separates the balloon of water and the top of the g-tube. Tenn was in the hospital for three days following the procedure.

So here is what a MIC-KEY button looks like:

 



And here is it again from the top with the port door open:

To keep it secured, a syringe with water inflates a balloon, which restricts it from coming out of the stomach:

After the balloon is inflated with water, it looks like this (we check the amount monthly):

The inflated balloon simply surrounds the tube. The tube you see in the center of the balloon is how food, water and medicine get into the stomach. Pretty straight forward, right?

Next, a long skinny tube called an extension is attached to the top of the MIC-KEY button in order to get food, water, and medicine in:

One end of the extension tube attaches to the MIC-KEY button, and on the other end there are two ports - one small and one large. The small one is for small syringes (usually for medicine):

And the large port is for large syringes and feeding bag attachment:



So that just about sums up the MIC-KEY button. Not as complicated as it looks right? It's not gross. It doesn't hurt her. Think of it like a pierced ear - only in her tummy. The button stays in at all times. If it were to come out, we would need get it back in as quickly as possible. The hole can close up in as little as two hours. 

It does sometimes freak me out that it is a direct link straight into her stomach, so I sanitize all her syringes and extension tubes. I use these handy little microwave bags and just add water to them:

Up next tomorrow: A typical day of feeding.

e-mail me at tennsense@gmail.com

Amy