NG Tubes

After being at home for a month now it's hard to imagine all that I have gone through just to be six months pregnant.

NG Tubes

If you don't know what this is, it's a soft plastic tube that runs through your nose down the back of your throat and into your stomach. During my 10 week hospital stay I have had two of these inserted and removed. To insert the tube they place it on ice to make the plastic stiff then tell you to lean forward and proceed to guide the tube into your nose. The first time they did this, the nurse tried three times to get this tube in but kept hitting the back of my nose and were unable to guide down my throat. There was no freezing involved and the experience was painful to the point where I got a very bad nose bleed.

Since the nurse was unable to insert this tube they sent me down to radiology to have a doctor put it in. This time the doctor layed me on my side and sprayed a freezing agent into my nose. Trying two times she again was unable to put the tube in and let me tell you the freezing agent didn't make the experience any less painful.

Anyways, back up to my room I went with out the tube and along the way we passed my ENT Doctor. I told him that they were trying and failing to put a NG tube in. He looked at me with a puzzled look and then followed me to my room so that he could try to insert one. Bent over my bed holding my husbands hand this Doctor shoved this tube in my nose and down my throat right to were it should be. Yes it was painful, I threw up a lot and it felt like I constantly had something stuck in the back of my throat.

This tube lasted only 24 hours in. During the night they tried feeding me through this tube using the smallest amount of liquid possible. I was getting 25ml an hour and this still made me sick. The next day I felt as though I had a steel rod running down my throat and my chest was going to explode. My mom sat there holding my hand as I cried from the pain and begged the nurse to please take the tube out. The nurse informed us that they were going to do an x-ray to make sure the tube was in the right place before they could talk about taking it out. Well after the x-ray they found that yes the tube was in the right place and they wanted me to keep it in for as long as possible.

Let me tell you, I have been so thankful for my mother during this whole experience for more reasons than I can even begin to describe. There have been a lot of times when Doctors, Nurses, medical staff didn't listen to me because they felt that they knew better than I did. When ever this happened my mom was always there to stick up for me and speak for me to make sure that I was heard. This was one of those times.

When the nurse came back and told us that the tube was in the right place and that they wanted to keep it in my mom firmly informed her that the tube was coming out. There was no explanation to why I was in so much pain and feeding me through this tube was not working so the tube was going to come out. Again, thank the Lord for my mom because that tube came out and I was back to some what normal.

A few days later I had a GI doctor come in and talk with my mom and I about trying the NG tube again. We had a long discussion and after coming to agreement I decided to try the tube again on my conditions. One, they would place a scope down my throat to make sure that I wasn't torn or too raw for the tube to be placed. Two, I would be given a medication to knock me out so that I wouldn't feel the scope or the NG tube going in. Finally Three, if I was still throwing up from the NG tube feelings or was still in pain they would remove the tube immediately and never put another one in. The Doctors agreed and so down I went to get this done.

I never felt this tube going in but apparently the drugs that I got made me a little loopy. That night the nurses hooked me up to the NG food bag and again giving me only 25ml an hour we waited to see what would happen. In less than an hour I was throwing up. The next day with out any arguments the tube came out and like the Doctors promised I never had to have another one put in.


That's only one of many procedures I have had done.