March 19, 2026
We never made it for outpatient blood cultures today. Instead, a Tate fever, low BP, and REALLY painful GJ site led us in to the ER per Tate’s GI team. I’ve learned a lot in the last couple hours about what may be going on with Tate’s GJ.
At home, when she woke in so much pain, I tried relieving pressure on her stoma by pulling out only 1.5 ml of fluid from her bubble(it’s what holds the button in for her feeding tube.) That caused screaming pain and lots of bleeding. Any body movement or touch at all now brings tears. Thankfully, laying flat on her back without moving seems to bring relief.
I’m learning this could be an abscess, a pressure injury with necrosis, or something called buried bumper. All could lead to bacteremia and infection. So this all could be related…or not. We’re waiting on a CT but have 4 hours of contrast to get through Tate’s J tube first. Ct is now at 9 pm. Then, we’ll go up to our room.
Tate is out thanks to the good meds. I’m currently grateful for March madness, although my #1 is already out.
Blood cultures are brewing and CT read should hopefully be fairly quick tonight.