I am so excited for Feeding Tube Awareness Week! This year, families are putting extra special focus on all of amazing and positive things about having a feeding tube and being a Tubie.
A feeding tube is a life-saving medical intervention for someone who can't eat, or can't eat enough to grow and thrive. But it is so, so much more. Over the past two years, we have learned that a feeding tube is a symbol of membership in a community that gives love and support when the medical community falls short.
Families are sent home with these medical devices and minimal training, and enough questions to keep an after-hours line tied up for days. A quick visit to any of a number of Feeding Tube support communities will show that there is always - always - someone ready to step up and help. Ready to cheer when you finally find your first safe food, or cry with you when you fail a much-anticipated scope. Ready to decipher yet another rash with you, or offer opinions on particularly baffling diaper contents.
Over the next week, I'd like to try to help you understand what it's like to have a tube, to live with a Tubie, and why I quite genuinely feel that this is the Best Thing We've Ever Done.
This picture was a promise. I was promising that I would do anything for him - anything to protect him. I'm so thankful for the medical technology that's allowed me to keep my promise.
A feeding tube is a life-saving medical intervention for someone who can't eat, or can't eat enough to grow and thrive. But it is so, so much more. Over the past two years, we have learned that a feeding tube is a symbol of membership in a community that gives love and support when the medical community falls short.
Families are sent home with these medical devices and minimal training, and enough questions to keep an after-hours line tied up for days. A quick visit to any of a number of Feeding Tube support communities will show that there is always - always - someone ready to step up and help. Ready to cheer when you finally find your first safe food, or cry with you when you fail a much-anticipated scope. Ready to decipher yet another rash with you, or offer opinions on particularly baffling diaper contents.
Over the next week, I'd like to try to help you understand what it's like to have a tube, to live with a Tubie, and why I quite genuinely feel that this is the Best Thing We've Ever Done.
This picture was a promise. I was promising that I would do anything for him - anything to protect him. I'm so thankful for the medical technology that's allowed me to keep my promise.
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