Chris unknowingly ate a meatball with pine nuts in it. They are clogging the tube every time he intubates. Anyway to disolve them?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: "Holly2",

I've swallowed (without thoroughly chewing) some pretty rough things like walnuts and you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you'll be working them out for a day or so. Which means removing the catheter multiple times during an emptying session and picking the chunckies out occasionally with the aid of a tweezers.

Just out of curiosity - what type of catherter is he using?

I use the Medena, Fr. #30 cath. It has the largest holes on the side and a hole in the tip. And it is a little stiffer than other caths.

Chris should eat smooth foods for a while until he gets all the kinks worked out and lets the pouch expand to its largest size.

And as Peter says, if you eat rough stuff that clogs the cath, you have to take it out and use tweezers and clean the tube. Sometimes no matter how much you chew the food, it will still come out in little chunks.

I hate the same problem last week with waterchestnuts. Thought I chewed them up pretty good, but I guess I didn't. I tried to drink a lot more so that the fluid would help push it out. The first time I needed to clean out the catheter, but after that it was ok.

I bet each of us k-pouchers has "been there; done that"! Who would know that someone added pine nuts to a meatball! Something my Italian mother-in-law might do.

Just use lots of KY or whatever when one re-intubates. Once in the hospital where they knew nothing about k-pouches and where the food was almost inedible, I was silly in a way that Chris wasn't....he didn't know what he was eating. But I SAW the canned corn and was so hungry and nothing else looked remotely edible that I ate ONE TEASPOON. My catheter clogged for two or three days! Every single one of those lousy kernels created a clog. Now I watch out for corn kernels, and beware, cooks add them to lots of stuff from casseroles to soups, and you sometimes can hardly see them.

Just be patient. They all will come out in the end...haha. At least it's great to read that Chris is eating good things.

Thanks.
I think it's all gone. It was my italian sister!
raisins and pine nuts!
my mom used raisins and i hated them, always picked them out. fortunately it was only a meatball and not too many pieces!

You had me scared !

I thought Chris had a BLOCKAGE blockage!!!

He just had a pain the *** tube clogging.
I love pine nuts but when I know they are in my food. There are so many times I tempt the powers of the catheter. But I like it to be on my terms so that I can be prepared to stop for slow moving traffic

Beware of pineapple too! I spent my first honeymoon pulling out pineapple chunks for a week!
Now I chew it up and spit it out, it gives me the taste without the week from hell.
Some raw salads do it too, the softer and darker the leaf the worse the fiber, double that for cooked leafy vegetables like spinach: make sure that it is chopped up first;

I took your suggestion about calling edgepark for the ampatches. I gave them all my info and placed my order, call me if there areany problems. I waited a week and called them to find out when is delivery. They told me I was not getting my delivery because they don't take my insurance. No one called, nothing. When I complained to the girl on the phone, she hung up on me. That is not the way to do business. What if it was supplies for urgent wounds. I wouldn't recommened them any more, very rude and ot professional.

Karmen - you need to call Edgepark back and talk to a supervisor. That is completely unacceptable and I'm sure the company doesn't want to have unsatisfied customers. Regardless of whether you ever use them again or not, they need to know what's going on so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

kathy

Probably not a bad idea offered by Kathy. I will say that for the longest time (ok, a year is a long time for me), I was extremely happy with Edgepark. It seems my last several orders have been screwed up or held up and customer service is lacking. Not sure what happened their, but things have seemingly changed.

Mike S

Karmen, I am very surprised. I have dealt with them for 4 years and never had anything like that.Perhaps you just got a new person, not that should be an excuse. I would definitely call them back and express my dissatisfaction.
Call Austin Medical direct and speak with Christopher. He is great.http://www.ampatch.com/
If you want me to send you some samples PM me with your address, I think Christopher at Austin will send some, Chris is thin and uses N4, 1' hole, but they also come in custom size holes also.

Just a suggestion for everyone. I took a brand new Medina catheter to my dentist. He used his drill to grind open the holes on the side of the catheter. They are now slightly larger and as smooth as the origional holes. I only use this one when I have eaten something that is blocking the catheter. It works great.

ooh, larry, what a wonderful idea.
i have a bunch of extra marlens that i could try that on...

I accidentally ate some pine nuts last night and am paying the price today. Stay away from the pine nuts and capers.