♡ All About my Feeding Tube! | Amy Lee Fisher ♡

As a nurse educator, who teaches families all about how the care/use of their child’s feeding tube and feeding pump, it is so cool to see you teaching that same knowledge to a wider community. You should be really proud of yourself for rocking the knowledge, helping normalize/destigmatize the tube, and helping prepare others who might find themselves needing a feeding tube!

Never heard of the condition before so thanks for that. As a nurse i value that a lot and also that you normalize it. It's super cool. Keep being awesome!

Still can't believe your gone rest in peace amy

fascinating. i have no idea how i got here but thanks for sharing :)

Just seeing this thumbnail made me feel sick... so many memories... I had to have three NG feeding tubes as part of my treatment for anorexia. In a way, it was life support for me - I was starving, and the tubes were necessary to keep me alive. It was absolute hell for me. I have a sensitive gag reflex (can't even swallow pills), and each tube made me miserable in different ways. The first one was the worst, as I was hysterical. Instead of calming me, the nurses held me down and forcibly inserted the tube as I scream and thrashed. They even had to take the tube out and reinsert it, since I was thrashing around too much. It was inserted into my left nostril, and I gagged and cried, but didn't vomit until a couple days later, when they put medicine through the tube. I could taste every flavor of Boost that they put through the tube, which was an odd sensation. I had that tube for eighteen days, and I eventually learned to eat with it in. They removed it rapidly, as I requested, since a long withdrawal would have been misery all over again. It felt like throwing up a straw - through my nose. The second tube was better in some ways, as I wasn't hysterical this time. It was inserted into my right nostril, and it felt just as bad as the first one did. It was downhill from there. I dry heaved for some time before vomiting. Fortunately, the tube stayed down, as it is possible to vomit the tube up-! This tube was a "punishment" for me. I was drinking enough Boost to survive, but my doctor wanted me to eat more solid food. So when I didn't finish my meals, instead of giving me Boost, I was given a feeding tube as "encouragement" to eat more. The tube bothered me, as usual. I could feel it in my nose, in my throat, and in my stomach. When I didn't eat for three days due to the discomfort the tube caused me (I was fed by the tube), the doctor took the tube out and resumed offering me Boost. The tube was horrific for me, as usual, and the fact that I was given it when I didn't need it shook me to my core. I realized that I couldn't trust doctors, and I still don't. My third and final tube was the best of all, and yet the worst. This time, I was in a facility instead of in a hospital. I was taken into an office and closed in with multiple doctors and nurses. As soon as I saw the tube laid out on the table, I began to panic. I begged them to not put it in, and they told me they had to - I was losing too much weight. So I begged them to give me some time to breathe, and to my surprise, they actually did. They let me calm myself down, and didn't insert the tube until I said I was ready. This was a huge improvement from the past two tube insertions. The tube was inserted into my left nostril again, and it was miserable. The gagging, the feeling of a straw stuck in your throat, always stuck... this time, I had to walk back to my room, which was hard when I could feel the tube in my stomach. They still expected me to show up to meals, and when I proved too miserable, they decided to give me my boost through a syringe in the tube. This is one way of being tube-fed, and it only really works for small amounts of liquid, because of how odd it feels to have the liquid rapidly sloshing into your stomach. The nurse, however, attempted to administer a whole meals' worth of Boost in this fashion! When I asked her to go slower, as my stomach was still rolling, she responded that she couldn't go any slower. Shortly after she left, I vomited up the whole glass of Boost. My tube even rose up out of my nose slightly, which caused me to panic. I didn't want a nurse to touch it, so I carefully pushed it back into place. That wasn't fun. The next nurse who fed me did so slowly, and I kept the food down. It was such a relief to have a nice nurse, and I'll never understand why some nurses are mean. This tube was also flushed twice daily, which was just a syringe of water shot through the tube to flush it out. I could always feel the water travelling the whole length of the tube. Sometimes the nurse would neglect to heat the water hot enough, and it would feel cold and shocking in my stomach. This tube was the worst as far as swallowing went. About every fifth swallow would be a "bad swallow", where I could feel the tube rising up, and I would begin to choke and panic. As a result, I stopped swallowing. I was banished to a seclusion room due to my constant drooling, since I was bothering the other patients. I wasn't allowed to talk to other people or to do anything in the room. I eventually received my Bible to read, but before that, I couldn't sleep, read, or do anything. I just got to sit on a bed in an eight-by-eight room all day long, before going back to my bedroom to sleep, and returning to the seclusion room in the morning. This went on for at least two weeks, until I became used to the tube, and could comfortably swallow again. I did eat some with this tube, but I would only eat ice cream. After about a month, this tube became clogged, and I had to have it removed. Instead of receiving a new one, my doctors worked with me to create a meal plan I could follow. I haven't had a tube since. For me, feeding tubes were the worst kind of torture. They made me gag, I could feel them all the way through my body, I couldn't lie down without gagging, I could barely eat or drink on my own, and I could hardly even swallow. But ya know what? I'm alive right now because of them!

you are sooooo inspiring!!! i really enjoy your videos and are not worried about what others think! thank you so much!

You blend the tape into your foundation really well

You are so cool about such a bloody hassle, looking at it I was like omg it’s so complicated, then you’ve got to have a tube which I’m sure people stare at, then you deal with the actual illness. Wow. Some people are just amazing. You’re one of them.

You are truly missed every day!! Still can't believe your gone. We know your up there looking down on us!! ❤❤

Probably getting an NJ tube... this video tool a lot of my fear away..

you’re absolutely incredible and such a trooper. i admire your resilience and perseverance so much

You give me a whole new meaning of life

You are incredibly strong, please don’t ever change.

Oh my word, you incredible girlie, I know you must get so many of these comments so mine might not mean anything (Not saying you're the kind of person who doesn't appriciate things!) just the amount you must get! You are so unbelievably inspiring, you should be the person people should inspire to be like. I hope you stay as wonderful as you already are and you'll constantly feel life be a little bit easier everyday :) Love you lot's and lot's and lot's!

When you began talking I was getting worried, because my older sister has the same Ehlers Danlos type as you do, and you know the chance of her getting or having this, but you make it sound so easy, that the worry went away 😊 you deserve more subscribers

I was recently diagnosed with Gastroparesis. Amy you are such an inspiration. Thank you for giving me hope ❤️

My niece was born 2 months ago and has to have a feeding tube for life, your videos have really helped me understand more and ease my mind ❤️

u just know how can a person beat his/her difficulties and rock the life... god bless you my dear....

Love that you're doing these videos! You're a young, stylish girl of whom younger people would look up to. Good on you for raising awareness and making this part of everyones normal. Well done! x

I have Ehlers-Danlos and POTS too! No one else knows anything about these conditions! I'm so glad that you're making people more aware about people like us!