Rubyann Hi,

My hubby just had his PEG tube inserted on the 3rd of Oct. We've felt a little uninformed as well. If you goggle PEG tube there are a lot of great sites that explain care and use. But most importantly I'd tell your Dr. that ordered it that you are NOT getting proper assistence with how to use and care for it. Also, don't give any of your personal info over the phone. You never know who it is that is calling. and there are too many con's going on out there that target people just like us. There are usually more then one home health organization that can assist you with this and if the one that is suppose to be taking care of you is not, then I'd ask your prescibing dr. who else you can use.
Also, about the magic rinse. Yup, we we're a bit confused about it too. The directions on the bottle say swish once every 4 hrs. Well pooh! that's not much help. his magic rinse is a combo of 3 things. Lidocaine, dipenhis and antac. His (MO) ordered it on Monday and we just talked to my Hubby's (RO) yesterday. He said to only swish and swallow evry 4 hours as needed but he could swish as much as he needed as long as he didn't swallow. ~shug~ I'm taking the bottle in today and getting a definite explanation on how and when to use this stuff. Just swishing once every 4 hrs is pretty useless in my book.
Speaking of new medications and questions about them. Our (MO) also ordered flucan on Monday. It's suppose to treat fungal infections. Well, I'm use to the kind that you rinse and spit. This one says take by mouth once a day. ???.. So I called the pharmacist to verify.( the rinse and spit kind should never be swallowed. So I was concerned) She said, "well that's what the Dr. ordered." My response was well ok. but should he really be swallowing it? is it ok? She finally then advised it was an oral suspension and yes he could swallow it. Geeze! Well anyway to top it all off Hubby had a hypersensitive reastion to it last night. His face and neck turned bright red and he had some seroius stomach pain going on. eek! Luckily his breathing was not affected or I would have been hauling him in to the ER lickity split. Needless to say I'm not giving THAT to him again. And I'm also taking it in to the Dr. today to see the directions on the bottle and see if that is what he really ordered. I find our pharmacists are a great resource and they have been really helpful to us thru all this. But communication is the key and it isn't unheard of for persciptions to get messed up by improper interpretation of information given on the script. Anyway what I'm getting at is don't hesitate to have your prescribing phys. elaborate on dosage and proper use of a med when he writes the script. That way you can be sure the directions on the bottle match up to what your dr. intended. I've learned my lesson and am going to question the Dr. on every aspect of a new med for now on.
Take care Rubyann, and insist to your home health care organization that you want them at your home now! and if they want your personal information for billing then they need to come get it in person. I'm concerned about thier professionalism. SO if your not comfortable with how they're handling this let your Dr. know right away and see about getting another organiztion instead.
Our organiztion NPHC was out the day after Hubby got his PEG. She had a whole two weeks of supplies for us plus 3 cases of formula. She showed us how to clean and care for the site and how to flush it. And will be out again in a week to check up on us and show us how to start feeding if we are needing to use it then for that. Your's should be doing the same for you as well.
Please let me know how your doing. Best wishes, ~Ija~