Leaky G-tubes?
Ben has had a Gtube for about 3 months now. For about the last 6 weeks he has had granulation tissue. We have been going back to the surgeons office at least 1x a week for silver nitrate. Once, the surgeon was on vacation and his tube was leaking badly so they sent us to the ER.
The Er Dr said he needs the silver nitrate daily, not weekly or it won't get better, so we started doing it at home. (he gave us all the stuff). It IS getting better, but the leaking isn't. I feel like I change the gauze 3 times a day, and whenever he drinks, it comes out of his stomach and his shirt is wet.
Is this normal? Does the leaking ever get better? The ER doc said it would once the granulation tissue was under control, but it really doesn't seem like it is slowing down any.
Thanks
Re: Leaky G-tubes?
My daughter had a lot of trouble with granulated tissue and the surgeon used silver nitrate to make it go away. But it started to immediately grow back. After discussing options with her pedi, we started using a daily steriod cream to keep the granulated tissue from coming back. It has helped out so much and she doesn't have to go through the pain of having the silver nitrate put on. Her g tube stoma does leak formula occasionally but we don't have any more trouble with granulomas
HTH
Carter's G-tube does leak, and it was especially bad in the first few months. We have never needed to go the silver nitrate route, but we do have a steroid cream if necessary.
Recently, I got a tip about a product called MyButtonBuddies from another poster on her blog (sorry, I don't remember the name or I would give credit). These things are great! The inventor of these things is a mom who has a kiddo with a G-tube. They are really cute, very absorbent, and you usually only have to use one a day. Like I said, we really haven't had issues with granulation tissues, but the maker says that she has heard from many customers that they help with granulation tissue. They are washable, and you get to pick out the designs you would like.
Here is the link...hope this helps!
https://www.mybuttonbuddies.com/index.html
What kind of tube is it? In our case, for the few days we had the bigger tube when DDs ostomy had been dilated for the g-j tube (don't know what that one's called--the longer non-mickey where you don't need an extension tube to put liquids in) the feet around the bottom of the circle created a lot of granulation. I got it switched to the low-profile after we realized that the g-j wouldn't work out and the granulation immediately went away. Leaking is a different issue, though. I always thought that was related to the correct fit, but haven't dealt with those issues personally so I'm definitely not an expert on that. Not sure how if these are allowed right away since he's just had his placed, but switching to the low profile mickey has **definitely** been better as far as granulation since our dilation.
We had the one that is longer, where you dont need an extension, we kept a piece of foam bandage there and didnt have a problem with granulation. When we switched to the button is when the granulation became a problem.
I looked at those button buddies, and I think they will help, I am going to get some, Thanks for the link!