This morning when I woke up, I was excited about today. I was finally going to have my g-tube removed!
I was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight last night. Usually, this means surgery. I had never heard of someone having surgery to have a g-tube removed, but maybe they weren’t starting to do that these days? I had no idea for sure.
I have a couple of friends with a g-tube as well. One of them explained about this balloon type thing in your stomach with water in it. This helps hold the tube in place. I believe this is the way it was explained to me.
She said to remove the tube, a syringe is connected to the tube and the water is drawn out of the balloon. If all of the water is out, the tube slides out without any pain. It was a relief to hear this. I don’t like to go through pain, and worry about how bad the pain will be until it is over. Very strange, because I can handle a lot of pain, but I will sit and worry over something like going to the dentist.
I wasn’t so lucky with my tube removal. I did not get my hope for pain-free, or even little pain. I suffered with pain, unnecessarily.
When I was called back to a room, I laid on the bed in there. The nurse took off all of the dressing and tape around the tube. Once she checked my vital signs, the doctor came in.
He told me that it would sting for about 20 seconds. Then YANKED the tube completely out.
Sure it was only five seconds at most, but my Father in heaven. It was so painful!
I couldn’t breathe for about 30 seconds. It felt like I was being gutted alive. It felt disgusting too. I could feel the water balloon fly out the little hole. It felt like someone was dragging balls through a pipe. When I say it felt like that, that is the sound the feeling made in my brain.
Edward said it really did sound like that too. Like a string on water balloons was being pulled from a drain.
No pain shot, no sedation, no anesthesia, no draining the water. Just yanked it out. I am still in a lot of pain. I came home and took a pain pill. It took some of the edge off, and I had to take another one this evening.
I can’t believe there is a pain-free way to remove these tubes, and they did it the hard way and put me through unnecessary pain. This doctor In my opinion, any doctor that puts a patient through something like that, deserves to suffer pain too. Just to know how we feel.
by Yvonne Foong, on 02.24.10 @ 3:13 am
Maybe the doctor wanted to save money if it’s a hassle or an impossibility to get the cost of little things like sedative drugs reimbursed through medicaid. That’s just my layman guess.
by Joanne, on 02.24.10 @ 12:18 pm
Gees, doctors are just … wel, no, not all of them, but that one sounds like a real jerk to put you through that. How are you feeling otherwose? hugs. Oh, and bTW, my e-mail address has changed. I switched from yahoo to gmail. sorry if this got a bit off-topic.
by Jamie, on 02.25.10 @ 1:51 am
It sounds like a misguided doctor to me. Like Jane said, it would not hurt at all with the balloon deflated. Senseless torture. I hope the soreness eases quickly. Hugs!
by Rebecca, on 02.27.10 @ 2:51 am
Hi Holly!
I have not been here in a very long while! Your website is just lovely and that is a very nice photo of you with your husband and Isiah. I look forward to catching up when I have a moment! (smile)
Thank you for getting back to me today and sharing your link!
May you be blessed and continue to get stronger and also have pleasant success with the ABI!
Rebecca
by hollyalonzo, on 02.27.10 @ 5:01 pm
No, the issue with the way he removed the tube has nothing to do with medicaid. Medicaid will cover any medication I need in a hospital and all medications out of the hospital. When I say all, I mean that there is usually a generic drug for the same one you were prescribed. If there is, that is the one medicaid pays for, but if there is not a generic they will pay for the on brand one.
This doctor does the tube removal this way for all his patients. I was so sore Wednesday. It was hard to breathe without pain. When I would cough, laugh, sneeze, bend over, anything….it hurt bad. I had to have Edward help me stand up. I am one who can handle pain, but this was just aweful!
I am finally getting better. It’s still a little sore, but nothing like it was. I am just so surprised that this was a gastrontologist, who is supposed to know how to do this right, who did this to me….and I told Edward we should go round up all the people he’s done this to and let the whole herd of angry patients get him with hot fire pokers. hahahs
by Carol, on 03.28.10 @ 12:08 am
My Mom’s g-tube came out during physical therapy. Got caught on something when she stood up and popped right out. She was so brave about it, gave a little cry at first, but then grinned and beared it. She went to the ER and had it replaced. Now it’s oozing brown stuff…anybody have any info on that?
by KDEE, on 06.12.10 @ 10:29 pm
I am so sorry to hear about your experience. I did a ton of research because i knew it was such a painful removal. My GI doc…sedated me similar to a colonoscopy. So, yesterday i had it removed….he sedated me and so i woke up when it was out. YEAH. It still hurts a lot today but I am assuming it will get better each day.
Wow…but it seems ti me that we should have more options than to have it ripped out….that is barbaric!!! I had esophageal surgery surgury and have been through a great deal so I wanted to make this less miserable.
We as patient’s just have to “push” to find other options.
Good luck’
Kdee