Scared Of Healing

The NG Tube

Thankfully, Cal is the first one to come, meaning that she has time to gain a little bit of trust in him. "Hello lovely girl, my name is Calum, I have been told that yours might be Ellie" he greets cheerfully. Ellie just gives a melancholy nod, leading Calum to send her a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry that we are meeting under such unfortunate circumstances lovely, but Mikey and Crystal have told me so many wonderful things about you" he says, sitting down near Ellie, but not too close, knowing to be careful of boundaries while he can. Ellie smiles, both at what he has said and the fact that he is respecting her space, before trying to sit up. Her monitors immediately start sounding alarms, concerning Cal as we both watch her eyes flick, but her heart rate soon comes back down and she is able to focus. "Mike has been telling me how much progress you have been making and he is super proud of you" Cal smiles, I look to him and roll my eyes, "he won't stop talking about it" he giggles, prompting a giggle from Ellie as well. I have to say, this is going better than I expected. Cal has always been good at getting kids comfortable around him... you kinda have to be if you're a dentist, but he has something special.

The next to enter the room is Ashton. I know Ellie is relatively comfortable with him, but apprehensive, still shaken from their ordeal in the ED. "Hi sweet girl, are you starting to feel a bit better?" he asks as he enters the room. Ellie gives a slight nod. I know she isn't feeling better, but she can't see the point in saying no. I know Ash knows this too but he was just trying to be polite and get her comfortable. He slumps himself on the small couch in the room while we make small talk just to keep Ellie's mind off things. 

Everyone is laughing at a joke that Cal made when the door opens revealing Luke, Ellie smiles seeing him. "Hey angel, I promise I've left Josh downstairs" he jokes, prompting another laugh from everyone but Cal, who has had no experience with Baker and is lucky that he probably never will. I quickly page my wife to come in, knowing that we need to get this over with. 

Crystal soon bounces into the room with a wide smile across her face, as always. "Hello sunshine, do you reckon I can take your obs?" she asks, walking around to the other side of the bed, grabbing the blood pressure cuff. Ellie nods and allows Crystal to take her BP and other observations. Once this is finished, Crystal quickly loads the results into the computer and sits next to Ashton on the couch, joining in on our conversation. Ellie soon realises that the next step is the actual procedure and she quickly shuts down. She stops paying attention to our chatting and she sinks into her bed as far as she can, trying to disappear from the situation. "It's ok sunshine, you've got a few more minutes" I whisper to her, trying to halt her panic. We all keep talking, allowing Ellie a few more minutes of peace, also being weary that any one of us could get paged at any time and wanting to all be here for her.

I slowly get off my stool, walking over to the bench where I had stashed the equipment, almost an hour ago. Ellie sees this and her breathing instantly picks up. "You're alright sunshine" Crystal comforts, taking our patient's hand carefully. "Alright, what I'm gonna do... is get Luke to hold her head, Crystal is going to hold her hands, Cal is going to take her legs and Ash is going to help me" I say carefully, trying not to trigger Ellie but needing to be clear for the others. Everyone nods and slowly moves into their positions. I grab the tube, "ok sunshine, I just need to measure alright, nothing to worry about" I say and she nods, seeming to know what I mean. I start at her nose and bring the tube, around her ear and down her torso so I can get an indication of how long it needs to be. I quickly cut off the excess and put the tube back where I want it on the tray. "Thanks sweetheart, you're doing really well" I praise.

Crystal takes both of Ellie's hands and Luke moves up next to her and holds her shoulder, slowly encouraging her to lay down. Our patient whimpers as she is made to lay down, "you're alright angel, take some nice deep breaths" Luke says soothingly. Cal slowly moves to the end of the bed and starts gently rubbing her shins as they shake anxiously. Ash and I quietly stretch on a pair of gloves and Ash puts some lubricant on the end of the tube as Luke repositions himself to a more effective position so he can help us keep her still and calm. "I'm just gonna bring the bed up a bit higher Elle" I warn before pressing the button to bring the bed up. "Alright sunshine, I'm gonna take the oxygen out for a bit, but we will put you back on it as soon as we can" I say before carefully removing the nasal cannula. Ellie lets out a nervous whimper as I pull the cannula away. "You're ok" Crystal whispers soothingly while she keeps a close eye on Ellie's stats, making sure that our patient's oxygen levels don't drop too low. "Alright sweetie, I'm gonna try and be really quick, just try to stay nice and still for me so I only have to try once" I say, cupping Ellie's cheek in one of my hands as Ash passes me the end of the tube. "Noooo" Ellie cries, "I'm so sorry darling, it's gonna be ok" I try to reassure as I bend down slightly. "Close your eyes angel" Luke whispers, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs as he holds her still. Ellie whimpers but does as she is told, "good girl" Ash praises as I start to insert the tube.

"No, stop" Ellie whimpers, opening her eyes and trying to move away, "sorry sweetie, you're doing so well" I praise as I push the tube into her nose, making sure that Luke is keeping her still. "No, I don't like it" she cries, "relax angel, we're almost finished" Luke says soothingly as the tube makes its way down her nasal passage. I quickly get Ash to get the cup of water and a straw. "Ok sunshine, this is the hard part, when I say so, I need you to take a really big sip of water for me" I say encouragingly. Ellie looks to me desperately, "once we've done that sweetie, it's pretty much over" I say reassuringly. "O-ok" she whimpers, "alrighty sweet girl, here's the straw, just listen to Mikey and this will be super easy" Ash says, moving closer to hold the cup near Ellie. Luke takes one hand away from Ellie's head and takes his pen light from his chest pocket. "Can you open your mouth for me angel? I just need to have a quick look" he asks and Ellie complies. He shines the light into her mouth and we look to see that the tube has hardly made it out of the nasal passage. I carefully push the tube in further so we can see the end at the back of her throat. 

"Alright sweetie, it's gonna feel a bit funny, but when you're ready I'm gonna get you to take a big sip of that water" I say after Luke puts his light away and places his hand back on the side of Ellie's head. Ellie whimpers as Ash places the straw into her mouth. "Good girl sunshine, you're doing so well" Crystal encourages, squeezing her hands comfortingly. Ellie lets a few more tears slip before taking a mouthful of the water, just as I had instructed. As she swallows, I let the tube run through my hands, following the water into her stomach. "Well done sweetheart, that was so good!" Cal praises as I push the last bit of the tube down. Ash then hands me a thin pad of adhesive foam which I carefully stick to the upper area of her cheek before resting the remaining length of the tube on top of it. Ash then passes me some tape and I cover the tube and the foam with it to make sure that it won't fall out meaning we would have to do this all over again.