VSG and feeding tube

I think it is a bit of a myth - I can't imagine the soft plastic of a NG tube puncturing someones stomach. I've googled it, but haven't been able to turn anything up on the subject. I also always wondered why NG tubes are singled out, why not all gastric tubes? It seems a bit silly to me.

You can have a blind NG with a VSG. It's a soft tube and it does right down into the stomach just fine because it's as long as it always was.

It's the RnY were it might be a problem because the stomach is much shorter than it used to be. Though there is even disagreeement about that.

The only reason I can think of for not doing an NG tube with an RNY would be the possibility of poking it all the way through the pouch and stoma, into the intestine...

Right, but I've talked to some emergency personnel and they seem skeptical that  this could happen all that easily especially if they were told about the bypass to start with.

But who knows... it's not something either of us has to worry about.

Thank goodness! (*grin*)

Yes we can have a ng tube; HOWEVER, we cannot have "blind ng". This is where they place the ng tube listening for the puff sound indicating placement is correct. Our tiny tummies will not give this sound and we could be injured as a result. My surgeon instructs to have "NO BLIND NG" written on an emergency medical card in your wallet in case there is no one to instruct EMT or doctors if you are unconscious. I have it with my driver's license; plus made sure all emergency contact folks know this about me.

I woke up from surgery ten days post op rny. I had a blocked intestine. It was miserable. I hated every second of it.

They said that some people cannot tolerate it. I am one of those. Reminds my of a boyfriend who used to choke me. Can't deal with it.

So when they removed it it was a blessing. Mine was inserted by my gastic bypass surgeon with a camera or xray or something. Not sure.

I ended up needing dental surgery for an emergency condition and they had no idea what a blind ng tube was. Threw me for a loop. So I just told them what it was and why.

They were very understanding and accomodating. By the way this was a huge hospital system in Houston Texas. So not like they shouldn't have heard it before. They swore they hadn't tho. So I hope that they learned by treating me....

My professional opinion (I'm a nurse who places all kinds of tubes daily) is that many health professionals do not understand the surgical procedures for WLS well enough to take the precaution needed not to unintentionally do potential harm. I do think there could be enough overzealous nurses and doctors that would try to push past the pouch, not realizing you have to measure for placement differently in a RNY post-op...serious harm could occur. I would prefer to have mine placed under fluoroscopy (direct X-ray visualization) if given the choice!