“Morning, buddy,” High Flyer said cheerfully as he walked into my room. I expected food along with him; none of the nutritionists had come in to wake me up, and it was well past breakfast time.
“High Flyer, why hasn’t Crimson’s breakfast come yet?” Mom asked from the window.
“Yeah,” I added. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually wanted that asparagus this morning.”
He sighed before he answered, “I’m sorry about that. I’ve been trying to get in here sooner but I kept getting held up. We’ve got another good-news-bad-news situation this morning.”
“Here we go…” I said, putting a hoof to my forehead. “Bad news first, but I’m guessing I know what it is.”
“Most likely,” High Flyer replied. “You’re not getting any breakfast this morning.”
I groaned. “Why not? The solids have been sitting fine for at least two weeks! I’ve even been getting up and going to the rooms by myself!” I whined. I closed my eyes and put my hooves on my mane, which had started growing back in pretty well.
“Exactly,” High Flyer said with a grin. “Didja notice I haven’t gotten to the good news?”
At that, my eyes popped open, and my head darted toward my lower left. “You mean—”
“That sucker’s comin’ out today, pal. You’ve been recovering quite nicely.”
“YES!” I cried, pumping a hoof. “Finally!” After High Flyer finished chuckling, I asked him, “So what is this, like a usual procedure? No eating for six hours beforehoof?”
“Precisely,” he answered. “You didn’t ask any of the night nurses for snacks, did you?”
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “I ate something small around nine last night, but that’s almost twelve hours ago.”
“Have you been drinking?”
“I had a few sips of water an hour ago with my meds, but that’s it.”
“Sounds like you’re all set, then,” High Flyer said with a grin. “Liquids aren’t as big of a deal in this case. Let me get the button and everything else prepped, and I’ll grab Nurse Redcross for the procedure.” He walked up to my bed and held up a hoof. “You ready for the next step to getting out?”
I hoof-bumped him and answered, “You better believe it!”
“Alright then. I’ll be back in about a half-hour, okay?” High Flyer said, heading for the door.
“Sounds good,” I said.
High Flyer shut the door behind him, and I heard the quick clopping of hooves toward my bed. I stretched my forelegs up and fell back against my pillow. “Thank Luna!”
“Oh sweetheart, this is wonderful!” Gramma said, giving me kiss on the cheek.
“Yes, this is great!” Mom added, kissing me on my other side. “If they’re giving you the button, that means only a few more days and you should be able to get out of here!”
“I know, finally,” I said with a relieved breath. “It feels like it’s taken forever! I might actually be out of here in time for school! I’ll still have the button in, but it sounds like that won’t be too much of a problem.”
“And as usual, our little star takes it all in stride,” Gramma said with a smile, as she and Mom both hugged me from either side.
About half an hour later, just like he promised, High Flyer came back to my room with a rolling table. On it sat a tray with a scissor, gauze, and some weird thing in some kind of plastic wrap. I could only assume this was the button— one side had a weird ball on it, and the other looked like a flip-cap, with a small tube holding them together.
“Okay, buddy, Nurse Redcross will be here in a minute, but let me just run through everything we’re going to do, alright?” I just nodded at him. “Okay, so before you get worried about it, the scissor is just for the stitches that you’ve got in right now. We’re just gonna snip ‘em and slip ‘em out so we can remove the tube. I do want to warn you, though, it’s gonna feel pretty weird. It might even hurt a little bit. Now I’m not gonna lie, buddy— putting the button in may not feel good, either. Take a look,” he said, holding up the button in its wrap. “You see this ball on this end here? It flattens like this when it goes through incisions,” he said, pushing on the ball so it flattened out. “The G-tube has one of those, too, so when we take it out, it’ll probably feel pretty funky. After the tube’s out, we have to push the button in, so you’ll feel a similar sensation in both directions. Do you understand?”
“I think so,” I said with a grimace. “Thaaaaaaat doesn’t look particularly fun.”
“To be honest, buddy, it probably isn’t, but the process shouldn’t take long. You see, while the tube’s been in, your stomach has been sitting up against your inner skin instead of in the center of your body. Because of that contact, it usually sticks to your side, but because we want to be certain nothing strange happens, we need to do the replacement quickly. Even though your stomach should stay against your inner side, we don’t want to risk it falling back to its normal position and leaving the button outside of its desired location. Get it?”
“Yeah, but I kinda wish I didn’t,” I said, sticking my tongue out in disgust.
High Flyer let out a light chuckle. “Well, like I said, it won’t take long.” At that moment, Nurse Redcross walked in. “Ah, looks like we’re ready to go!”
“Indeed we are,” Nurse Redcross said. “Has the patient been briefed?”
“He has,” High Flyer said.
“Wait, briefed?” I asked.
Nurse Redcross answered, “When a spy goes on a mission, they have to be ‘briefed’ for their task so they are prepared. Are you prepared for your little procedure?”
I actually liked the sound of that. The thought of being like a spy made it sound kind of cool. I took a deep breath and replied, “Yes ma’am, I’m ready.”
“Excellent,” Nurse Redcross said. “Let’s flatten you out.” She hit a button on the side of my bed and the back went down. When the bed lay completely flat, she continued, “I know High Flyer explained everything already, but I’ll walk you through everything as we do it. Now, this may not be the most comfortable position, but I need you to turn to your right a bit. We’ll put a pillow behind you for support.”
“Okay,” I said, turning over. High Flyer folded one of my pillows and put it behind my back so I stayed in position, then went back to my other side.
“Now, I’m clipping the stitches first. It will probably feel a little strange.” As she snipped each stitch, I felt a tiny bit of pressure release from each one of them. It felt pretty good, actually, aside from what felt like little worms slipping from my skin. “This last one may make the tube shift a bit, so if it starts to feel like it’s slipping, don’t worry, alright?” As she clipped the last stitch and slipped it out, the tube did indeed feel like it had moved, but she grabbed it in her aura. “Okay, hon, this is going to be a two-parter. You already know about the balls on the ends of the tube and the button; I’m going to take out the tube and put in the button one right after the other. You’ll feel some pressure each time. Are you ready?”
I hooked my hoof around one of the bars at the top of the bed and said, “Ready!” before I took in a small breath and held it.
“Tube coming out!” I felt a large pressure in my gut as something got yanked out of my stomach, then popped out of my skin. “Button going in!” I felt a hoof on my right side holding me for support as another force pressed into my left side, followed by what felt like another pop, this time on my inside. The hoof on my right let go, and I felt another, lighter pressure on my left. “That’s it! All done, hon. Great job!”
I took in some more air and breathed out as I glanced down and saw Nurse Redcross pressing some gauze against my side, right around the button. It had a bit of a red tint to it; I could only assume it was from some blood. I took in a few deep breaths while High Flyer took over holding the gauze against my skin.
“How was that, buddy? Feel okay?” I just kept breathing for a moment. “Is ‘not fun’ the right description?”
After another breath or two, I answered, “Yeah, that’s about right. Ugh.”
“Did it hurt at all?”
“Eh, not really, but it didn’t really feel good.”
“Not surprising,” Nurse Redcross said. “The balls that keep the tubes and buttons in place are meant more for function than comfort, unfortunately.” She reached for the up-down button on the side of my bed and asked, “How high would you like it, hon?”
“Just leave it for now, if you don’t mind,” I said. “I’ll adjust it after I’m comfortable.”
“Alright, then.” She patted me on the shoulder with a smile. “Great job. A couple of days with that in here, and you’ll be out in no time. You can take it from here, Flyer.”
“Yes ma’am,” High Flyer responded as she walked out the door. Turning back to me, he asked, “You need a little help adjusting, buddy? That probably still feels pretty weird.”
“Yeah, a bit,” I said. Taking a few more breaths, I hit the button on the bed to see where I was positioned. When it started lifting in the middle of my back, I shifted upwards a bit, then pressed the button again. “That’s better.” Sitting most of the way up, I looked down at the button. The little flip-cap poked out of my gut, just like the doctor said it would. It was a little annoying, but no more so than the clamped tube.
“Looks like you’re okay, buddy. How about some applesauce?” High Flyer asked.
I glared at him for a moment. “We’re back to applesauce now?”
He held up a hoof. “Just for right now. You haven’t had breakfast, and I don’t want the first thing in your stomach after the button insertion to be something big. You’ll get a normal lunch, don’t worry.”
I let out a sigh. “I was gonna say…”