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Well ME has been gtube free for 2 1/2 weeks now and is doing well. I wouldn’t say everything went totally smooth though….

After about a week and a half we noticed a lot of leaking through her bandage. And then she had a bit of pain along with it. We called the dr and he was out on vacation but they instructed us to remove the bandage and do our best to keep it clean/dry/covered. We did that, and there were quite a few days of her having pain here and there. We did our best to make her comfortable and were praying that it wouldn’t become infected. We did a good job with it though and were able to make it a little better. It also began leaking a bit less so that helped.

Yesterday we went for our follow up and as we knew, the hole had closed quite a bit considering the hole had been pretty larged (it was really stretched out). So it is good that things are moving in that direction. He said we did a good job bandaging it, but he had better special stuff that would last longer and keep it tighter. He also suggested we use vaseline on the area. He said the area is pretty sore so when the stomach acids leak out it feels like it’s burning, which was the pain she feels. The vaseline will help it and then the bandaging will help keep leaking minimal. So the process is- we put the vaseline on, then pack gauze over it and tightly put this bandage tape over top of it called "Elastoplast". The whole idea is to put some pressure on the area to keep everything in. He gave us some extra stuff so we can do it ourselves should it leak or come off, but it definitely lasts pretty well.

He will see her again in 2 weeks to follow up, he said the process can take a couple months but it gets better and better as the hole closes. Since it is closing, it should close most of the way at the very least, if anything there may be a small opening (like a pin hole) -should this happen he’ll put one small stitch in quickly and she’ll be in and out with no recoop.

So we’ll just ride this out. I’m glad to report though she hasn’t had any more pain in a few days so I think we’re on the right track!