An Inquisitive Patient

I got to reassess my case study today. This little man just makes me smile. When I went to see him this morning I asked if he was still having diarrhea. He said that his stools were still loose and then he asked me if he could have formed stools while being fed through a PEG. That stumped me, and I had to ask the RD. She said that most people being tube fed do have soft stools. Though everyone’s description of feces is different, so it is hard to know if his is as compact as is possible given his present method of intake. Has anyone heard anything about tube feeding and the affect on the patient’s stools? Has anyone had a constipated tube feeder?

Later in the day, when we went on meal rounds, my case study was pacing the halls with his bottle of Jevity and all the other necessary paraphernalia. Before jokingly trying to run me over, he said that the bottle was a different color than it normally was. The RD was with me and when we looked at the bottle I noticed that he was getting Jevity 1 instead of Jevity 1.5. I was very impressed that he noticed the difference. The RD inquired about getting it fixed, and when I checked the notes in the evening he was supposedly receiving the right formula.