my friend just had mouth and neck surgery.he had cancer of the gum and in his jaw bones. they remove some lymph nodes as well. his jaw bone was replaced with bone from leg and a medical type of material. he has a feeding tube through the nose. he also has a trak. the trak was removed today, but did not pass the eating test so the tube has to stay. because of physical therapy he should need skilled nursing from a nursing home. however he was told because the feeding tube was through the nose not the stomach he did not quality for skilled care . what is the difference in the placement of the tube and why would one be considered skilled and need a nurse and thenose iwon,t
The tube that is going into your friends nose is going through his food pipe into the stomach. Taking feeds through this pipe is a simple task that can easily be learned by the relatives. All one needs to do is to connect the feeding bag to the tube and let the feed run slowly. At the end to flush it with plain water. The patient should be sitting during and a little while after the feed. The only possible complication is that it may come out accidentally when it will have to be replaced which is a simple task again. The tube that goes through the stomach is called PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy). It is a specialized procedure done by the endoscopic and is much more complicated. Since it is coming out of the abdomen there are a number of complications that can occur like leak, bleed, pain, dislocation. These are difficult for the relatives to manage and so require specialised care.