Leaking Feeding Tube

Posted by emersonmoon @emersonmoon, 3 days ago

My husband had a j-tube placed before chemo. I don’t think it had enough time to heal as directly after cycle one of FLOT it got infected and started leaking uncontrollably. He was put on antibiotics and given white blood cell boosting injections because his count crashed to almost nothing. The surgeon denied the tube was infected, inflated the balloon a bit more, and basically said it’s just part of the hassle of going through cancer treatments. He said removing it isn’t an option because it probably won’t heal. My husband is beyond frustrated and we are afraid this is going to keep happening and possibly compromise his chances at getting through this to recovery. He’s been taking care of the tube as instructed and it was starting to look better, but now it’s once again hurting him and the fluid inside is turning green. I’m beginning to wonder if these people are on their game, honestly. Has anyone else has this problem? Also, do white blood cell crashes usually necessitate injections? I felt like he needed them (his counts were crashed as of a couple of days ago and round 2 is supposed to begin on Wednesday) regardless of the tube issues. He almost ended up in the hospital one night because his temperature spiked very high, but then it went back down again.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Esophageal Cancer Support Group.

My dads feeding tube started leaking like that. Come to find out it was leaking internally into his body cavity as well. Be careful with it. I would see another doctor about it. Sounds like the health care providers you are seeing aren't going to do anything.

REPLY

I had issues, found a way to address them.

Maybe my experience would help you.

I'm happy to talk if you want.

Gary

REPLY
@gdj

I had issues, found a way to address them.

Maybe my experience would help you.

I'm happy to talk if you want.

Gary

Jump to this post

Yes, any advice would be appreciated. The surgeon put more water in the balloon and that helped a little but it started up again. The area around the disc is very red now.

REPLY

I have had infections from my feeding tube twice, the first was when placed and I had a pump over feeding and leaked into my body cavity, the second was from leakage. They should check to verify proper placement of the tube as well as giving antibiotics. Redness for me has been related to leakage of stomach acid and can get quite painful, I have a high threshold for pain so I can only imagine what it feels like without the high threshold. The last time I had the issue they treated the site with a silver treatment that essentially burned off the affected tissue at the site, the pain I was in was diminished but took about a week to fully recover. Hoping for better results and treatment for your husband!

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.