questions gravity feeding

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suziQ

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Joined
Oct 30, 2021
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33
Reason
PALS
Diagnosis
10/2021
Country
US
State
MI
i got a PEG feeding tube in on Friday. Doing my first feeding right now Jevity by gravity. Two containers in the bag, supposed to do 7 total. i can still eat but it isn't easy, i don't choke it just takes forever because it i difficult to move food around my mouth. I had a home health worker come in and she set this up to show me how. I have been sitting here for over an hour and if looks like it has barely moved, it is but it is so slow. i have it set so it is flowing as fast as it can. Frustrated i was hoping to spend less time eating. i read somewhere about thinning it with water, how does that work?

I have bulbar onset still have use of my arms and legs so i try to stay as active as i can. i have some travel planned, the next two are by car and i can't imagine doing it this way on the road is there a way to do this in a car or stopped somewhere without the iv pole

i know i can move around with this but can i go to the bathroom? Seems a bit weird.

Any info on this would be appreciated
 
I got a feeding tube 5 months ago. I just use a 60cc syringe (called bolus feeding I think ) . Takes 15-20 mins
 
thanks Jimi, did that this morning after talking to the nurse. Much quicker, didn't time it though, next time i will. Do you push it through at all or just let it flow through on it's own?
 
My ventilator is set to to 11 breathes per minute. So we use that as a timing reference, every breath we push about 10-15 cc in with the syringe. When using a syringe it must be pushed through
 
We let it flow through on its own through the syringe. We did mix it with about 8 ounces of water first. This helped my dad get his daily water intake and also thinned out the formula so it would flow faster.
 
I'm not sure how to just let it flow through the syringe. Once you draw fluid into a syringe, it's under a vacuum and will require the piston be pushed to force the fluid out
 
do not draw fluid into it. we did not use the piston. hook up the syringe to the tube and pour formula into it.
 
i did it both ways as a test, using the plunger is a bit easier and quicker. Didn't have any issues either way. Thanks guys:):)

My tube has a opening for pill but no one has shown me how to use it. Any one know how? Picture below
 

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I have 2 ports on mine too. Both go to the same tube. I guess it's for simultaneous feeding and medication. I don't have a use for that. Only pill I have taken is benadryl dissolved in water and put down the tube
 
We crushed pills, mixed with water, and poured down the syringe the same as we did for the formula. We got the silent knight pill crusher off of amazon. It is a little pricey but it worked very well. We started with a cheaper option but it could not crush the pills small enough to go down the tube.
 
Hi! I have had bulbat onset for 28 months and got the peg tube 18 months ago. I am 100% on the peg for at keast 6 months. I have the slow feeding system but have never used it. I used a 60cc syringe for about 3 months but got tired of reloading it. So I went on Amazon and bought 150cc tube and use that now. And I push it in fast and have no issues. It takes me about 5 minutes to take in my 3 Jevity containers. And I have been doing it this way since the start. Try it and see how you react to it. I have no issues with it but I didn't know any better so maybe that is why it worked?
 
do you wash them and reuse them? How long do they last? i make a mess trying to reload them so many times
 
I just rinse ot out with cold water and let it air dry. I get about ten to 12 uses out of one before it gets too hard to pull back and just toss it and get a new one. It isn't too expensive.
 
My husband stopped breathing for a couple of seconds during a choke. It all made sense when I watched the pictures of the swallow study. We are just going into our tube consult next week, so these messages are very helpful. Some of his choking is on saliva....the drops haven't helped, so onto the next strategy. Thanks! Dot
 
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