Both times I ended up in the hospital I had one or two nurses that had no clue how to put meds through a g-tube and even less clue about feeding. The last time I was in a hosptial, I ahd a hospitalist on my side who after 2 or 3 days convinced the powers that be that I did not need a pump for my tube feeding when I usually did gravity feeds at home(and the pump was just one of several tubes I had coming out of me because my lung had collapsed during surgery so it was really nice to be able to get rid of it) and that I could just feed myself if they would just bring me a syringe and the jevity.

Actually it was much easier to get that to happen in the smaller local hospital where I was right after treatment because I was neutropenic and running a fever. The only problem there was they brought me Jevity that was quite a few months past the expiration date--thank goodness the label on the can had changed since that stuff came out which made me check the date. Otherwise I would have never tbhought to even check. They did apologize profusely to me when I pointed it out.

Moral of the story: if you are in the hosp. with a g-tube you really need to advocate for yourself. Too often, nurses only see them on unconscious patients and don't get that there are different ways of feeding yourself with one when you're conscious.

Nelie