What next?? J-Tube came out...

Put your foot down about the tube
Hi JanBred. Sorry to hear you are having these J-tube problems. I had a few myself but mine were pre-surgery. Twice my J-tube came out before my surgery. The first time scared the you know what out of me but I went to a local emergency room and the ER doc replaced it with a Foley catheter of all things. Well the thing leaked like a seive so I complained long and hard and finally was told to go into the VA Medical center to get a new tube put in. The problem with these tubes is that when they come out (and they will), if another tube is not put in within a couple of hours, your small intestine starts to heal and the opening closes up. So anyway I go to the VA to get a new tube. And they tried to put a larger Foley Catheter in for me to use, I just looked at the Dr and said if you put this in and it leaks I am going to come back here and go Postal on somebody all because you are trying to save a couple of dollars. Well she left and another Dr came in talked to me just to make sure I wasn't going to do anything crazy and then sent for and put a J-tube, one designed for feeding in and I had it in until 2 days before my surgery and then it came out. This time when they put a Foley in I did not say a word because I wasn't using the tube much by then.

If you can tolerate the dairy and sugar, try mixing 2 scoops of ice cream, a pack of Carnation instant breakfast, a cup of milk and a teaspoon of instant coffee in a blender, blend well and drink in the morning. It is high in calories, vitamins, etc and will help with your weight a little bit. The coffee is optional of course and I always dissovled it in a very small amount of hot water before putting it into the blender. Hope this helps.

J Tube
The same thing happened to me . My tube fell out on the bedroom floor and I kind of freaked because I thought oh no, now what? I live in Canada where home nursing is free twice a week so I called my nurse and she said if I wanted it put back in to go to hospital immediately, if not , to not do anything. I was post op by months but was still receiving chemo and radiation. My radiation doc was most upset that I did not have the tube replaced but I managed fine. Trick is to eat very small meals high in calories, mashed potatoes, smoothies, soft pasta with cheese. I hated ensure but the carnation breakfasts are not bad. Puddings etc. The mucous seems to be part of it . It scared me as well but I learned to just cough it up into a kleenex and move on. The nutritionist I saw said not to worry about vegetable content at this point, the main concern is calories, so that's what I concentrated on. Small portions that are fattening. I did not lose more than a few pounds. This is just my experience, 13 months out from surgery and doing well. SFSG.
Hope this helps a little bit.