Odd place to ask for advice...

[AceArcher]

HELP!

Need some opinions / advice / especially if any of you have gone down this path with a loved one, or are in the health care industry.

As some of you may know my mom is suffering from late stage dementia / alzheimers. She has been in the hospital / rehab center quite a bit this year.

She is at the stage where she has great difficulty swallowing food or drink without aspirating it ... which of course leads to aspiration pneumonia (which is what has had her in the ICU for the last week)

Additionally her inability to eat (and to a large extent her lack of desire to eat anything) has also meant that she has lost nearly 60lbs from her once healthy weight.

So the hospital has said that we need to consider putting a feeding tube in, this is not the type of tube that goes thru your nose, rather it's one where it goes in thru the abdominal wall and you give a liquid diet via this tube on a regular basis.

At first thought, it seemed like a good solution... ie.. it has seemed like the main problem with mom has been her lack of desire to eat and when she does eat her aspiration of that food / drink causing repeated pneumonia's. so putting in a feeding tube that bypasses the throat so she doesn't have a chance to aspirate the food / drink seems like the ticket!

But after some further reading on the internet many people say that feeding tubes do not work for patients with advanced dementia and if anything only cause additional discomfort / pain.

Hoping someone can shed some light on this subject for me. We are going to need to make a decision on it pretty soon and want to be as informed as possible.

So if you have went through this with a loved one... what are your thoughts on this good or bad.... or if you work in the medical field please share with me.. either by posting or by emailing me.

Thank you for reading and responding with your thoughts.

AceArcher

[Clampy]

Oh man that's terrible. Best of luck to you.


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[SaltERedneck]

My wife has a feeding tube and it causes the occasional discomfort. A "button" tube is the way to go. less apt to pull it out with dementia and less pain. Most of the pain comes from the Stoma or insertion site or the tube getting pulled on. Otherwise it jsut becomes a part of them and they dont notice. The button tube is less of an adjustment.

As far as maintenance... there is hardly any for the patient. Just keep bacitracin around it to avoid cracking of the stoma. If you have ANY questions about Peg tubes feel free to PM me.

Jevity is a supplement they will probably start her on.... also you can puree (sp?) food and put it in. I have a bunch of tricks for that as well.

[jchief]

Originally Posted by SaltERedneck

My wife has a feeding tube and it causes the occasional discomfort. A "button" tube is the way to go. less apt to pull it out with dementia and less pain. Most of the pain comes from the Stoma or insertion site or the tube getting pulled on. Otherwise it jsut becomes a part of them and they dont notice. The button tube is less of an adjustment.

As far as maintenance... there is hardly any for the patient. Just keep bacitracin around it to avoid cracking of the stoma. If you have ANY questions about Peg tubes feel free to PM me.

Jevity is a supplement they will probably start her on.... also you can puree (sp?) food and put it in. I have a bunch of tricks for that as well.

He would definitely know and be the one to talk with.