Your feeding tube come out?

Just a piece of advice for anyone who has his/her tube come out, stick it back in quickly and tape it in. Thursday it happened to me for the first time. For some reason, the balloon deflated. I got out of the shower, dried off and everything was fine. I sat down shirtless to change my trach tie since it was wet. I went to move my feeding tube and it just came out in my hand. Needless to say I was shocked and a little shakey. I tried to get it back in and gave up. I messaged my sister right away since I still can't talk and asked her to contact my doctor. He told her to have me go right over to the hospital where he was working. I found out the window to be able to use the same hole once the tube is out is about four hours. By the time he was working on me, about three and a half hours had elapsed. He had to dilate the hole without anesthesia which, I assure you, is not pleasant! It's not as bad as having a trach put back in without anesthesia but it still hurt and it would have been uneccessary if I had been able to get the old tube back in to hold that hole open.

He told me to carefully tug on it a little today to make sure he didn't nick the balloon with forceps while forcing it back in. Turns out he did nick it and the balloon deflated this morning on the new tube. This time I was able, after a couple tries, to get the tube back in and I taped it to my body. What a difference that made when I went to the hospital today. The doctor just pulled the old one out and put the new one in with no pain whatsoever.

If it ever happens to you, do your best to get it in. If you can't, get to an emergency room right away. The longer you wait, the more that hole closes and the more it will hurt!