It was a very long, agonizing and excruciatingly painful endeavor, but with great effort and patience, I was able to get Tim to take his shirt off and lay flat on the bed. Ninety seconds later he was in the dining room �eating� breakfast through his new tube, a mic-key button type.

He�d had this tube, his second, for nine months. (His GI doc said he could wait that long even though the manufacturer suggests 3 to 6.) The balloon was fine, but much of the water had evaporated. The instructions suggest testing the balloon and topping it off monthly, but Tim would rather not. In fact, Tim would rather just wait until the tube pops out on its own � like last time. His first button lasted 18 months!