A rather large milestone .....

Last Tuesday Finlay was admitted to Christchurch Hospital ... this time planned .... for a gastrostomy. Basically an opening has been made into his tummy for a tube which goes through the stomach wall into the stomach. It is a fairly common and straight forward procedure only made complicated by his diabetes. We have a fabulous team though and have always had complete confidence in them so knew that we would get through without too many issues. He went into surgery at 1.30pm and we had had a phone call by 2!! We went into recovery and he was still under but soon came round and although a bit sore was in pretty good spirits. The next couple of days was really about balancing out his blood sugars as he was unable to eat/have feeds 4 hrs previous to the op and then nothing until 6 hours after and then only very small amounts. This was balanced with IV fluids topped up with glucose to try and maintain his sugars. The first was a very long night but we came through it without too many issues and the 2nd night was even smoother so we were finally discharged on Thursday morning.

For Alan and I the removal of his NG tube is huge. For the first time in two years we are able to see all of his smiling face and all being well will never have to put to use our newly gained skill of inserting the NG tube again. For Finlay he can now eat and speak without restriction which must feel so different for him .. plus not constantly having tape across his face ..... it's all good. So I'll leave you with a very special photo ..... our boy without his tube .............isn't he gorgeous!!