My husband Billy had a peg tube put in 1/4/07. He will be having chermotherapy & radiation for a squamous cell carcinoma in his lymph node in the neck. The feeding tube is not being used at the moment & was put in for him to be able to used after the radiation & chemo has been started for a couple of weeks. He is going to the both doctors on 1/23/07. What I need to know is there looks like there is some residual in the tube? How do I clean that out? Should the tube be flushed daily while it is not in use?

Thanks,

gbc

Hello,
I'm sure the doctor will check it all for your husband, but if it's any help, I have a Peg which I am expecting to have to use during radio/chemo. At the moment I don't use it, but had to just after my operation. When I was discharged from hospital I was told to flush the tube each day with 50ml of cooled, previously boiled, water and to turn the peg 360 degrees. I also swab around the peg, but I'm not sure what you should do if the residue has been there a while. Hope you get it sorted out and that the treatments go well.

gbc
I've just had my tube removed after several months - it was very useful!
The advice I was given was to flush it with fresh tap water before & after every use (for feed or medication) and to flush it at least once a day if I wasn't using it otherwise.
As gms said, rotating & cleaning was also part of the routine.
Good luck!

Hello gbc

There is much advice in the discussion on
PEG problems and PEGs. You can also search for previous discussions on PEG feeding using the Find button to look up the keyword 'PEG'.

To read about flushing the PEG tube to keep it clean, click here.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes
Vinod