Mom, I forgot my Lunch

Maggie left for school this morning as usual. We did the crazy "get out of the house before the bus comes" dance.

For an extra special addition to our routine there was the rain to deal with. Just as we were headed out the back door, the heavens opened up and we were forced to head down the outdoor lift in a downpour. I found an umbrella small enough to fit inside the lift with us and held it over the two of us for the S L O W ride to the ground floor. The elevator's top speed is 9 ft per minute, and it doesn't really go top speed in the pouring rain. Despite the umbrella, we were both pretty wet by the time we got down. Once we were in the garage waiting for the bus the rain let up a bit. Figures.

Maggie left and I came in to get a start on my 1,000 projects that needed attention. About 30 minutes later I was already at the computer working when the nurse called from school. Maggie did not have a feeding tube. The nurse sent home the feeding tube yesterday because it was grungy and I didn't put in a replacement. I had one in my hand before Maggie left, but I got sidetracked and never put in the bag. Also, i didn't realize there was only one tube at school. G R E A T.

This isn't like a kid forgetting their lunch and having to scrounge from the other kids, Maggie doesn't eat anything by mouth. She cannot eat or even have water without the tube. She needs to be fed every 2 hours. I just had to go. I had 40 minutes to get to school with a couple of feeding tubes before her 10:00AM feeding.

Projects were put on hold - again - and I set out across town to Maggie's school. I walked into her classroom holding up the tubes saying "who's hungry." Maggie laughed uproariously. (Gotta love a kid who laughs at her moms' lame jokes).

For those of you wondering, Maggie has a gastrostomy tube, fondly referrd to as her G-tube. There is a device surgically placed in her stomach that lies flat against her belly. Whe we need to feed her, we just pop it open and put the feeding tube in like a key in the lock. You attach a syringe to the tube and pour the food right in. Here are picutres for the curious. They are artfully arranged on top of my checkbook for contrast.

The food she gets is prescribed and is a medically concocted formula that is a perfect nutrition. YUMMY! We feed her about 6 ozs every two hours, and I can do that with my eyes closed. She needs the calories but cannot handle more volume than that at one time. Hence the frequent feeds.

At night she is hooked up to a pump and the food goes in while she's sleeping. We could do that while she is awake, but Maggie LOVES to fiddle with the tube and would unhook it 20 times a day and laugh maniacally at the mess she could make. She does that about twice a week at night as it is. The pump continues to deliver the food, but if Maggie has unhooked the tube it just goes all over the bed. HILARIOUS. Nothing like changing sheets in the middle of the night. Now we have layers of protective stuff on the bed and just peel off the layers as they get wet. Ingenious, I tell you.

So I lost my block of computer time this morning. My projects were delayed. In fact it's now 6:00 PM and I'm just sitting down at the computer again - other than quick emails mid afternoon. Somehow I think nothing much will get done now. Maggie's home and I have to keep jumping up to help the nurse with this or that. (In fact, 13 minutes have elapsed since I started this paragraph.)

Oh well, there's always tomorrow. Unless some other random tube or piece of equipment is missing.