Crushed pills

[Forester]

How do you get crushed pills to dissolve? ...so they can be put in with the syringe?

 

[Santa joe]

I crush pills and then add hot water into pill crusher. Let that sit out for 5 minutes and then put into peg. Haven't had any problems.

 

[adozi]

We use a mortar and pestle, then dissolve the powder in warm water. With a 60 ml syringe, so it has a bigger opening. See :

How my cALS do it: meds through a feeding tube

 

[affected]

same here, we have one med that comes as tablet with nice shiny bright blue coating!

All the other meds we get in liquid form, or are made to dissolve (like movicol).

I have a cute little glass pestle made for medications that is nearly antique I think. I put the tablets into a plastic medicine cup, then grind them a bit. It's actually the darn coating that needs crushing, inside that coating the actual medication is just powder anyway. Bit annoying, but I found quickly that I don't need to get too worried about grinding all that blue up tiny, which I was doing at first.

So I grind em a bit, then add hot water and let them sit while I get everything else set up. The blue coating is just a sugar coating so it dissolves quite neatly.

I put the water flush in the syringe, then while there is still around 30ml in the syringe, I tip half the blue water in, then give the medicine cup a bit of a swirl to make sure any sediment mixes in and tip it in.

I flush that with the next liquid meds which I've added to about 40 ml of warm water too.

Then finish with a straight water flush.

So far, it's been simple and no blockages or issues.

 

[ottawa girl]

In discussion ( preparation) with my pharmacist about my pill swallow issues, I was advised most meds can be compounded. Apparently crushing some pills may adversely affect their efficacy? Has anyone done this for either PEG or oral intake?

 

[Tokahfang]

I have had some of my drugs compounded for oral intake. I was originally motivated to make them not require stomach digestion, but I was still drinking them orally. It was really helpful. In my case they had to avoid nutrasweet, their default sweetener, so some of them tasted awful, though. If you find a pharmacist who does a really good job, he can give you the formula to tell the next one how it worked. A neighborhood pharmacist can do it, but usually they push you off to a "compounding" or "specialty" pharmacy.

 

[dalvin]

I've scheduled my meds to to coincide with my feeding. I crush the pills, put the powder in a 60 ml syringe, add the water and run thru the tube. Add some more water and shake some more and run that thru. Then I take the formula and flush with at least another 180 ml of water. So far no problems

 

[Diane H]

If you are shopping for a mortar and pestle to crush pills, look at cooking and kitchen shops. Medical supply stores may not have them. There are many other types of pill crushers available but they can be difficult for someone with arthritis to use. I agree with the need to grind and then put in water to dissolve before putting down the feeding tube. Also, don't use the little medication port on the feeding tube if there is one. That is tiny and more likely to clog. It is only there because if the feeding is run in continuously rather than at "mealtimes", it is easier to put meds down the medication port than to stop the feeding to use the bigger feeding port. Liquid vitamins are really costly. If you can still swallow but not well enough to get pills down, try the soft chewables. They are like soft gummy bears!

 

[lgelb]

Re vitamins: my husband cannot do gummy-types, but we do well w/ the VitaMelt multi (melts in your mouth).

Re crushing safely: there is a "Do Not Crush" list available via Google (ISMP). If your med is not on it, shouldn't be a problem, even if the insert cautions against crushing, which some of them do for legal reasons rather than actual testing.

However, some meds like warfarin that have a narrow therapeutic index may require significant dosage adjustment once you start crushing -- and possibly twice, if you go from taking the crushed med in applesauce/yogurt to dissolving in water.

 

[affected]

Great point lgelb!

We told our doctor when prescribe the pretty blue pills that we need to crush them and he checked and gave the OK.

 

[BrianD]

My wife uses a $15 coffee and spice grinder from walmart. She has poor hand strength from various reasons, so that works great for her in preparing my meds for the tube.

 

[Janie H]

I just had to have my first tube replaced because of calicum vitamin blockage, my tube was really small and we waited too long to water between vitamins. Careful

 

[affected]

Please everyone ALWAYS follow the rule - FLUSH with water FIRST, then food or meds, and FLUSH with water AFTER.

So important and simple to do, even though sometimes my PALS tries to get me to skimp on the after flush as he feels a bit full I apologise and ensure I flush well.