Can anyone tell me if it OK to take showers with the PEG tube installed? I fell so much better after a nice shower.

FVDale, Yes, showering is OK. Keep it covered, though, to begin with. After a week or so you can let is get wet without too much worry. I used to put gause over the place the tube went in and changed it after the shower. Kept gause on for 7-10 days or so and then stopped keeping it covered and only swabbed it with hydrogen-peroxide once per day. Tape the gause to your stomach so no water gets in and go ahead and take that shower.

FVDale, I used plastic wrap to cover the PEG, which I coiled up. Never thought to leave it loose as Kirk did. Anyway, I taped the plastic covered tube all around and stayed in the shower until the water got cold. I just kept the Saran wrap and tape in the bathroom and I got very fast at covering the PEG. I had forgotten, but cleaning daily with hydrogen peroxide is a very, very good thing to do. I did this and had no infection or trouble of any kind while I had the tube. Now go take a shower!

We also used the Saran Wrap method when my husband first got his PEG tube. We were also wrapping the PIC line entry that was used for administering chemo and Ethyol. I'd help him wrap and tape before showers and it seemed to work well.

Anita

My hubby Dan had a PEG tube for about 5 months. He had to put tape around it just for the first week when showering. After that he put nothing on it, showered, and then just cleaned around it with Hydrogen Peroxide. He never had any problems and he took a shower everyday no matter how bad he felt. He said it was the only thing that he had control over and it felt so good to be clean.

Hope this helps...God bless,
Debbie

I was told to NOT USE hydrogen peroxide around the tube. It creates an moist warm environment which causes the creation of granulation tissue. Granulation tissue is your body trying to seal up the hole which is something you don

You should be able to daily clean the area around the PEG tube with plain soap and water in the shower. After drying the area spead some topical antibiotic ointment around it each day like Neosporin and that will help keep infections at bay and things in good order.

I had a PEG tube and it required little to no care from me. I didn't tape it to my body, it tucked nicely into the waist of my underwear. I cleaned it each day by simply taking a shower, I never covered it up at any time. There were two times during the time frame that I had it that they used silver nitrate to take off the granulation...........yep, it hurt! The peg was simple for me.