No steps forward - two steps back?

Luther's feeding tube is intended to give him extra calories.  Unfortunately, since it's been put in, that hasn't been the case.

First off, I am not a gentle nurse.  I'm learning to be one.  

So think of this tube coming directly out of his stomach.  What goes in also comes out...  

The end of the tube is like the end of an inner tube or floaty thing you blow up and put in the water.  You snap the end back in to the tube to make sure nothing comes back out.  

My mom is really really good at tiny, fine detail work whether it's knitting, sewing, darning.  That talent skipped this generation.  So I'm trying to bend the tube so the gooey watery stuff doesn't come out, I'm trying to snap open the top without pulling it too hard then put in the syringe with my big 'ole man hands. (Don't get me wrong, I like my hands just fine)

The first time I did this, I pulled on the tube and sent Luther through the roof.  :(    

The first night we fed him - two nights ago, he became super bloated.  Ok, I'm just going to get down to it here and say it:  he couldn't fart or burp enough to make himself feel better.  He didn't want to eat at all because he felt full but he wasn't full.  The only thing he'd eaten was this milk stuff.

We figured out some stuff.  I'll spare the gory details (laxatives) and he got through the night.  However, we did it again the next day - fed him more gooey milk stuff and the same thing -- feeling full, bloated -- so he doesn't want to eat real food.  

I bet today, he's had maybe 1200 calories.  While he was in the hospital, he had to fast for the surgery.  He hasn't eaten much of anything in the last four days.  

My skinny patient.