The tube feeding situation of 2013

Well, we are in Africa, right? These past few weeks I have been reminded how amazing lucky we are to have what supplies we do. After smooth sailing for 6 months, we finally ran out of Ensure for our tube feedings. (Yes, here in West Africa we put that vanilla flavored drink you would give to the elderly or nutritionally deficient down feeding tubes) We had been making do for a few weeks with canned Pediasure (same idea, but designed for kids) and supplementing it with a few other things in order to give our adults the required protein and nutrients.---we moved to mixing up powdered ensure just 3 weeks ago and then just a short few days after that---bam, our blissful operation came to an end--We have now been successfully making our own tube feeding concoction! Yes you heard me, smoothie king would be put to shame by our mixing skills. Milk, peanut butter, sugar, liquid vitamins, a little fiber and a blender are all it takes to give our patients the required nutrients. Creative--yes... Functional---Not exactly. The peanut butter we use had to be bought locally in a large tub and is much more textured than something of the creamy variety you would purchase back in the states. This seemingly small task of feeding our patients often leaves us with the biggest frustrations of the day. As a nurse, we like efficiency, knowing we can hook up a bag and trust that it will deliver all of what we intended to our patients not run back 10 times to “mix it up” so that the peanut butter will flow through the tubing. The second problem with this method stems entirely from it’s composition-because the African diet is not typically strong in the dairy group we have had a few lactose intolerance problems----our answer to even this curve ball---make it with SOY! As we mix up liters of NG feedings a day, the common phrase is “if only my friends back in the ICU at home could see me now”. Never in the Western world would we mix our own feeding--it comes it’s own pretty little plastic bottle ready for attachment to a patient--easy as that. It’s things like homemade nutrition that cause “Africa Mercy Problems”......every single day here is an adventure---and I absolutely love it. See my friend Anna’s blog HERE  for a creative poem pointed at the tube feeding situation on board. 

Added note: Saturday we found out that the container of supplies from Texas sitting in customs may have ensure on it---best. news. of. my. week.