Feeding Tube

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turnip

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Joined
Jan 24, 2016
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17
Reason
CALS
Diagnosis
01/2015
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US
State
OH
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OLMSTED FALLS
Any pros on here that can tell me if it is normal for a patient to still feel pain, or experience slight bleeding around a feeding tube 5 months after the surgery? he is complaining that it is sore and a trickle of blood ran out from around the tube.He said it hurts a bit when syringe is pushed and tube connected. He doesn't see the VA again until April 11th, is this something I should raise a flag over asap?

Thanks Jane
 
Hi Jane,
has he had constant pain for 5 months?

Definitely not normal. Occasionally there can be a small bleed around the stoma.

What is the pain level, and how much bleeding?
There is no reason you can't take him to your regular doctor or call the nurse at your clinic and ask if it should be seen earlier.
 
Sounds like it may be granulation tissue forming on the stoma. That is painful and bleeds. It looks like small bumpy red bulges at the edge of the opening (stoma). My husband said "Your guts are sticking out!" Not true but his description! The cure is to dab over-the-counter cortisone cream on the stoma a couple of times a day until it stops hurting. It works in just a day or two unless the granulations are very large. Also, if you are still cleaning the stoma with peroxide, stop and switch to soap and water. There is evidence that peroxide breaks down the cells that are trying to close the stoma. That is normal and a stoma never heals completely so granulation tissue can come back at any time. The cortisone will stop it temporarily, but there is no benefit in using it all the time. You might be told to have the doctor burn off the granulation tissue with silver nitrate sticks. If you are into pain, you will enjoy that! Otherwise try the cortisone first. There is so much nobody tells you about feeding tubes. Click on my name and then on the link to my website or blog. Lots of feeding tube stuff there.
 
I've had my feeding tube for a week now and still learning all about it, thanks for the advice
 
Silver nitrate sticks as treatment on proud flesh around Chris's stoma never caused any pain either to be applied or afterwards. I'm sorry you must have had a bad experience with it Diane :(

If the area around the stoma is first well sealed off with say a barrier cream, and the person doing the treatment knows what they are doing it is quite painless and effective.
Well I'm just saying that was our experience anyway.

I can imagine however that a cortisone cream treatment may work well too. I know that over here in Australia it would require a prescription, not sure about over there.
 
My husband also had the silver nitrate treatment of the granulation tissue around the stoma with no pain.

He had the surgery last July and there is still often a little bit of blood that I see when cleaning around the stoma. A small amount of blood is not of concern.

Sharon
 
Try to avoid to having over-granulation by ensuring your tube or button is the correct size and properly fitted.

Cortisone cream never fully got rid of mine, it kept recurring, but silver nitrate did. I felt no pain and, like Tillie said, my skin was protected by a barrier cream and it was done by my community nurse. I haven't had it since using the silver nitrate 5 yrs ago.
 
I am a cheapskate. For the price of one doctors visit copay, I can buy a tube of cortisone that will treat several years worth of granulation flare ups. So says Uncle Scrooge McDuck!
 
@pbgal yeah that's why I asked how much pain and bleeding.

A bit tender sometimes, and a little bit of blood occasionally is normal. But 'pain and bleeding' would not be. Isn't it hard with text sometimes to get the full meaning across? Turnip would have known exactly what she meant when posting the first post here :)

@diane I was laughing so hard McScrooge - for us here the community palliative care nurses would come and do the silver nitrate treatments and this is all part of our public health care so no charge at all. I would have to pay for a cortisone script to be filled ... so I think you can count that as McScrooge here too!
 
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