Posted by CareBear04 on November 26, 2004, at 0:49:57
hi-- i remember someone posting on this board and mentioning that her daughter has a feeding tube that gives her nutrition during the night. can anyone give me more information about this? i have lost a lot of weight recently from being sick and having a throat injury. in the hospital, they thought i was anorexic, but i don't have any problem with gaining weight; i just can't take in enough orally. my body has been hurting a lot, sometimes feeling like my bones and joints are snapping apart. i can't sit or lie down comfortably for long because it's painful. i haven't been well enough to go out much, but when i do, i can feel people staring and thinking eating disorder. i myself hate looking in the mirror because it's like looking at an ugly skeleton. i know a lot of people have problems of feeling or being overweight, and i can imagine that it's a horrible and hard problem to deal with. still, i think plump is beautiful, and too thin is as bad as very overweight. i really want to feel better and help my body heal, but though i'm drinking lots of ensure and boost and trying to eat as much as i can, my body needs more energy to rebuild than i can take in. my electrolytes are messed up, and my heart hasn't been beating normally maybe because of low potassium. i don't want to have to deal with things like osteoporosis (sp?) and i really want to be able to have children in the future. this problem came on fast, and i want to treat it fast before long-lasting complications set in. i want to stay out of the hospital at all costs, but i think i need an additional way to get nutrition. i definitey don't want to walk around in public with a tube down my nose or IVs in my arms, so is there a way to do this at home, ideally while sleeping? can they teach you how to place a feeding tube or place an IV that you can connect and disconnect for nutrition? i have travel reservations to go to egypt over christmas, which gives me a month to get healthy enough to make the trip without being or getting sick there. if anyone knows about this stuff, please let me know! i'd appreciate any input or any tips for what i can do. thanks so much! cb
poster:CareBear04
thread:420373
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20041005/msgs/420373.html