← Return to Copd, pulmonary fibrosis, mac bacterial infection and honeycomb lung

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@tmmmrlts

@merpreb the scan is showing he has minimal air space left. Due to the mac bacterial infection and other things he has. They keep bumping up the oxygen to 8 or 10 then turning it back down to 6. They are talking about a feeding tube. Because he gets to out of air eating

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Replies to "@merpreb the scan is showing he has minimal air space left. Due to the mac bacterial..."

@tmmmrlts- Oh I am sorry about this. What does your husband think about a feeding tube? I'm glad that they are being vigilant about his O2. He probably needs to have different amounts at certain times of the day.

@tmmmrlts My dad had a feeding tube and I can answer questions about it. His was permanent because he wasn't able to safely swallow without danger of aspirating into his lungs. My dad had a skull fracture head injury when he was in his 60s, and had to relearn how to swallow. He was able to get off the feeding tube after a while, but when he was much older in his 80's, he again had difficulty swallowing and had aspiration pneumonia because of swallowing wrong, and he had to have the feeding tube again and have no food by mouth. Over time, when a person is not expanding their stomach with food volume, the stomach shrinks and has less ability to accept the liquid food. That presents a problem, and feeding then becomes a slow drip. It gets difficult to keep to a schedule to get enough in a day when it has to be done very slowly. At first, we could dispense a syringe full, but then had to use an IV type bag on a stand. If my dad would start coughing up the liquid from his stomach, and I would have to quickly use the tube to empty stomach contents so he would not aspirate on it. That could happen after a feeding was finished, and he had a limit, so I tried not to over fill his stomach. He was also at end stage heart failure and passed away. That was a few years ago. I was his caregiver. I can answer questions, so please don't hesitate to ask. Hopefully, a feeding tube would be a temporary therapy until he recovers.