Even though this button is a lot easier to hide compared to Liliana’s tube, it’s actually a lot messier. There’s a message board that I sometimes read called Babies and Children with a Feeding Tube, and a lot of the parents on there that have buttons are saying things about discharge from the stoma and using gauze or “Button Buddies” around the button to keep it clean.

I wasn’t told at all about the extra discharge that would happen now that Liliana has had her button put in! I told Sean that the nurse who made the button change didn’t really tell me much about maintenance and care of the button; no instruction sheet was provided either.

So now Liliana has been getting the area around her button moist with this discharge; sometimes it will dry out and form a little crust on her skin. The big problem is that since there’s a hole in her skin, the body wants to repair the hole. Add in moisture (the discharge) and darkness (we keep it covered), and something called granulation tissue forms. It’s basically skin that’s trying to cover the hole.

And now Liliana has some of it.

I’m going to try to keep the site as dry as possible to prevent the granulation tissue from growing even bigger. I’ll call Friday to see if we can get a prescription for a steroid cream that’s supposed to help shrink the tissue. If the tissue gets any bigger, they have to burn it off with silver nitrate.

In any case, I’m wondering if I should invest in these Button Buddies that the moms on that message board are raving about. They’re cloth pads that velcro around the button and they absorb the discharge from the stoma. Judging by how much moisture we’ve seen come out in only the past 2 days, I think I’ll have to.

Also, I am now 6 cm dilated. On Saturday I’ll be 39 weeks, so really, Damien can come out any time now!