Re: J tube email and mic key button

[Guest guest]

I believe that post was mine. The long J tube hangs from the belly it's very

long and gets in the way. But the Mic key button is a really little button

and thats flush with the skin. Here i will attach a pic of maddy's button.

The button is by her belly button the tube off to the right is her port.

Imagine that button but with a really long tube hanging from it, and it

wouldn't

be flush with the skin.

Chrissy

PS

Look how chubby maddy's belly looks YAH! YAH! YAH! YAH! YAH! YAH

[Guest guest]

,

Max has had both kinds of tubes, so I can explain them to you. But

please keep in mind that what you have read about Madison (Chrissy's

daughter) is NOT what our kids usually have done. Madison is in a

different and more serious situation than most. Her needs are unique

to her.

That being said, a Mic-key button can be a gastrostomy button and/or

a jejunostomy button. Mic-key is the brand name for the button that

you see on top of the skin. Basically a tube is placed into the

stomach (gastrostomy) through a hole that is made through the skin

into the cavity. For a few weeks there is a tube that is placed so

that healing can happen. After that, a Mic-key button is usually

the choice of buttons. It looks like a disc on the outside, while

on the inside there is a balloon that is inflated with water once it

is put into the stoma (hole). That balloon is what holds the button

in place. There is a very small tube that runs down the middle of

that balloon that is open into the stomach on the inside of the body

and the other side of it goes to a port that is in the button. You

can access this port by hooking up a long tube to it and twisting it

to unlock it. That is where the formula is placed via a bolus feed

(with a large, syringe - no needle) or a feeding pump.

A j-tube, or jejunostomy, is used when a child cannot tolerate any

food in the stomach. Sometimes for various reasons, the stomach

will not let any food at all stay in, so the doctors decide to

bypass the stomach and go directly into the large intestine, the

jejunum. There is just a longer tube that runs inside the child.

That is where the nutrition is absorbed anyway, so it is a viable

source of feeding. This can be done with a special Mic-key that has

a few ports: one for the g-tube and one for the j-tube. At this

point, the g-tube would be used for venting, to get the extra air

out of the stomach.

Madison needs something a bit more complicated. For whatever

reason, Dr. H. does not want to use the g-j tube. She wants Madison

to have access via two different sites: one to the stomach and one

to the jejunum. Please don't worry about that for your Maddison.

Her needs are not the same.

I hope this helps you understand things a bit better. The beauty of

the g-j tube for those who are more prone to stomach viruses,

dysmotility, rumination (cycles of vomiting that last for a long

time) is that both of the accesses are there when needed. But most

of our kids just need the g-tube and it works quite well.

Jodi Z