It was a crisp Saturday afternoon and my husband and I were enjoying a cup of coffee outside. What could go wrong? Cats!!! When you have 4… it’s always cats!
Sam, my sweet little cooing ball of one-year-old kitten puffiness, was running around the backyard. I playfully picked him up as ran past, giving him playful struggle snuggles. Then he kept of my stomach and all hell broke loose.
I felt a knot in my stomach, literally. Like a marble in my abdomen wall. My stoma hurt!
I lifted my shirt to see my mic-key button almost out. Sam had yanked it forward and his claw had gone IN THE STOMA AND POPPED THE BALLON! It is 12:50pm
So up and to the ER we go. Jason grabs Sam and puts him in house. I go clean off with saline and cover up with gauze to stay somewhat hygienic. Shoes on. In the car. Go. 1:05 pm
We went to the ER of the hospital that installed my Mic-key button. I told them my feeding tube got pulled out by my cat and he popped the balloon, and it needs to be replaced immediately before the stoma closes and that
that I was told to head straight to the ER if it came out, so that they could keep the track open because it starts to heal right away. *wink* Between my speech and the oddness of what I said I did have to repeat myself. LOL! We arrived and check in at 1:25pm.
At 5:30pm they finally took me back, they had never seen a mic-key button before. Went on a hunt all over the hospital and came back with a regular G-tube dangler. It was what they had.
Emotionally this was extremely hard for me! I have severe trauma around my g-tube experience, particularly with NG tubes and danglers. When they went to install it I ended up standing on the hospital bed on my tippy-toes, in the corner of the room, crying, and not letting anyone touch me. I finally got myself pulled together and was prepared to have them install the G-tube. It was 6:30pm.
It wouldn’t go in… the stoma had closed too much! They told me the stoma would need to be dilated with the IR department and there wasn’t anything they were comfortable doing at that point. Go home and call IR on Monday to schedule. It was Saturday. I was tears… I’m 105lbs, have epilepsy, and am NPO other than water and thin liquids… how was I going to eat or take meds? Was there anything they could do? Please!?!?!
So I ended up with a catheter.
No outside stopper, so it would wiggle and travel if I didn’t tape it down. Shot food straight up into my throat the first time I used it. If too vigorous on flush it whipped around like a fire hose. Also no cap, and I use ENfit syringes. So they gave me this valve adapter…
So we cut the end off of an extension and pushed it through the hose connector part to make an ENfit connector. It was the medical equivalent of duck tape and zip ties but it worked! Held until I got my stomach dilated and a new mic-key button installed on Tuesday.
Made me appreciate the small size of the buttons. I have since had my DME send me a spare to keep on hand, so that I have it incase of an emergency. I bring a spare mic-key button with me when I travel now. I also keep Christmas tree adapters in my to-go bag, so that I can use my ENfit syringes in an absolute worst case catheter connection situation.
TubieLifeHacks 
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