In pursuit of trying to stop Zack's occasional ability to throw up his food, Dan and I have decided to use a pump to feed the Pants. So today we not only had a pump delivered but we also had pump training.
Please don't imagine some giant pump mechanism that we have to push up and down in order to feed Zack, no that would just be too weird. It is simply a small little machine that allows you to programme in how much food you want to give Zack via his PEG over a certain allotted time scale.
The usual way to feed Zack is to hold up a syringe with milk which then goes through a tube into his body. This is called bolus feeding and means he can have about 165mls of milk in 15 minutes, as it goes in quickly it sometimes causes him to throw up a little. With the pump we can give him the same amount over say an hour and we don't have to sit with him whilst we do so, it will also slow the food down, meaning less refluxing.
I was quite against this at first as I felt that we were just hooking him up to a machine. However I now see the benefits. The machine is tiny. It means we can feed Zack early in the morning and in the evening when he goes to bed. This frees up more time to do physio and other therapies as well as going out and family fun time. Talking of going out. We get a little rucksack that holds his food and the pump. We can now go out all day and take his food with us, set it all up and carry on with whatever we are doing. Fantastic.
Hopefully this method of feeding him will mean less reflux and more free time. I think when Zack was smaller I couldn't imagine using a machine but now as he is bigger I can see what benefits it has for him and us. I suppose you just need time to adjust to new ideas, way up the pros and cons and then consider whether as a family it is right for you. So tomorrow we are giving it a go. Pumping here we come.
2 comments:
Hurrah! I love my pump. Like Zack I have reflux and was having a very hard time getting enough fluids without spending all day wearing a decidedly non-ornamental syringe. Now? I have a litre of water overnight, usually at a leisurely 90 ml/hour, and wake up watered and perky.
Waterworks infections have reduced hugely, kidneys are much happier and the biggest bonus of all: my Personal Assistant (the people whose job it is to support me so that I can live independently) fills the bottle with a mug's worth of coffee in the morning, and I wake up slowly as it kicks in. Bliss!
Also sleeping and eating a handy combination!!
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