Again without wanting to worry anyone here it would have saved a little time if I (and nursing staff) had known. They could not figure out why it was so hard to take the stopper out.
Dan...Like you....other than the trach tubes along with all the other's I (or should I say the nursing staff) also found the feeding tube through the nose a problem. Actually the problem was not mine because every nurse had a hard time with mine and could not understand it when the time came to flush it out and when inserting a new liquid feed. They had such a hard time with it however on the daily x-ray taken while on my bed in ICU at around day 4 they found the tube was too long and was twisted. They say the distance from nose to stomach was a little shorter than normal bla bla bla. (I am 5�5 which is sort of medium female height).
In any case they pulled a couple of inches back out of nose, reattached whatever the valve part was and viola.. all was OK !!