Did you hear a loud cheering somewhere around 7 p.m. mountain standard time Friday evening??

That would have been me, and all of my kids, when Josh took out Marcus’s feeding tube. FOR GOOD.

Woo hoo!

Yes, while we were in Utah for Belane’s appointments, Marcus also had an appointment. And his specialist agreed with me that he has continued to do super well, and no longer needs his g-tube. Marcus had it put in almost two years ago, when severe reflux had caused serious damage to his airways, and he was aspirating when he drank. He had a Nissen (a surgery to tie off the top of his stomach so he couldn’t throw up any more, to protect his airways from below), and he had a g-tube that he had to be fed through, to protect his airways from above. The g-tube was surgically placed in his stomach…it has a little balloon inside that fills with water that holds it in place.

Since those surgeries, he continued to improve steadily. He slowly became able to eat more and more by mouth, and drink more and more by mouth without aspirating. He stopped getting sick all the time, and stopped having loud, labored breathing most of the time.

Honestly for the last year, he has really been a happy, healthy, normal kid. He height and weight are super good (he’s a beast!), and I have really been feeling like it was time to get rid of that dang tube. It has never healed well for him, and it has been a constant battle to keep it from being all red and irritated, and a constant battle to keep him from pulling it out every chance he got.

Since Josh and I learned how to change out the tube every few months at home, we knew how to take it out. The small hole will just heal up on it’s own within a week or two. He just has a nice little bandaid there now, instead of tape and gauze and an ace bandage (we used the ace bandage to try and keep his hands off of the tube).

He will have two nights of monitoring at home to check his oxygen levels, but his doctor was 99% sure we will be able to officially discontinue his oxygen use at night too (Marcus decided that about six months ago and has been impossible to keep the oxygen tubing on since then…even with all sorts of tape and stuff).

We have also weaned him off most of his medications over the past few months, and he is down to just one daily and one or two as needed. His only real issue now will be his severe food allergies (he is allergic to eggs, nuts and milk).

I just had to share my excitement with you…it has been a wild ride with Mr. Marcus. He was expected to be healthy when he was born, and was a perfectly healthy newborn. Around four months his health started to deteriorate (which we now believe was increasing damage to his airways from severe reflux). It took six months of tests to figure out what was really wrong with him and get him the surgeries and medications he needed to be healthy.

It is just wonderful to have that tube gone. Yay for Marcus!!!