Prime the Peg

Daddy was more talkative with the speech pathologist today. He counted to ten without prompting and recited all the days of the week. His girls had seen these parlor tricks before so weren't overly impressed, but Dr. Tom (head neurologist) sat in on the session and was much more impressed reiterating that many times stroke survivors with resulting apashia don’t recover any speech so the fact that he’s already got words coming is great. He also assured us the swallowing would eventually come back with time as the brain continues to reconnect. The right hand would probably be last and the toughest to get back since there is so much more communication that needs to go on between the brain and the hands.

And we FINALLY had a feeding tube inserted today! After Tuesday’s failed swallow test he was scheduled for a gastronomy tub (or “PEG” tube), allowing him to receive food and medicine without having to swallow. Nursing staff think having the ability to administer blood pressure medicine through the tube as opposed to an IV may make it easier to control so we’re optimistic about that too since the BP is still too high.

The tube will be in for a minimum of six weeks, but as soon as Daddy is able to swallow food and drink safely he won’t have to use it anymore. While I’m sure he’d prefer a nice rib eye the old fashioned way, this will take the pressure off relearning the swallowing reflex for now.

Along with the tube comes a registered dietitian, his meal plan will consist of “commercial feeding formulas” that are designed to provide all the protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals needed (luckily he won’t taste it).

We have to wait 24 hours before using the tube; so we’ll have one more afternoon of a hangry papa before he finally gets a full belly.

Daddy was given orders for bed rest the remainder of the day so that the tube insertion point could heal. While he couldn't talk (ha) the hospital staff into bending the rules and putting him in a chair, he insisted on at least sitting up with his legs dangling over the bed for a while (the nurse did conveniently ignore the bed alarm that went off). He, Jessica and I had a good chuckle while trying to lay him back down; it was obvious none of us knew what the hell we were doing but he managed to get back in a horizontal position with all limbs intact.

Here’s to the last bedtime with an empty belly… cheers!

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