Month: May 2014

Water is essential when we are trying to get healthy. The fact is that many of us do not drink enough water to stay well hydrated and although we can be a bit dehydrated all of the time it is much better to be well hydrated by drinking water.

The argument always comes up that you don’t need to drink water, you can get enough from the food that you eat, but really, if you go just a week with an increased water intake you will never go back. You will have more energy, better concentration, be more aware of your surroundings and think like a superstar.

City tap water is not acceptable to many areas of North America. Another option for drinking water is to buy water from one of the options listed here. Before heading out the door, be aware that your options may include spring water or drinking water.

Common Types of Drinking Water

Municipal water, also known as tap water, is drinking water that comes directly from the water main, where it comes from wells or rivers. There is no consistency to how good actual tap water is but many cities and municipalities will put out infomation on chemical readings of tap water. This is better for the environment than bottled or filtered water because it does not require material to be shipped into Davis from far away. Municipal water may be drunk from hose or tap, with hose possibly giving a better taste.

Spring water is bottled directly from mountain springs, or wherever the company says it comes from, and will be high in mineral content — high mineral content means more flavor. Since this is essentially why you may not want to drink the local tap water, you may have to do a taste test to determine which spring suits you best.

Drinking water is essentially filtered water; it’s usually just some municipal water (though not necessarily from Davis) that has been run through a filtering process. The source of filtered drinking water can vary, as can the process by which the water is filtered. If you are particular about your water, you would do well to do a bit of research to find out how the water the drinking water you purchase is treated.

Distilled water may also be found within supermarkets grocery stores, but this is not typically sold as “drinking water,” and is intended for use in appliances, such as irons. Distilled water is actually boiled in a still and the condensate collected and bottled — this process removes both ionic and non-ionic organic contaminants including minerals. Mineral deposits left by drinking waters can damage clothing, affect appliance performance, or otherwise screw up the results of your experiment.

Deionized water isn’t typically readily available to the average consumer and requires a fairly expensive process. It is most often used in labs to ensure that chemistry results aren’t skewed by dissolved impurities in modern water supplies: ions such as calcium, sodium, chlorides, etc. Y’all shoulda lernt this in high school chem! Deionization removes ions from water via ion exchange, much like those things in clubs that make smoke stick to your clothing. Safeway sells purified water under its own label by the gallon, which is indicated as having been either deionized or filtered by reverse osmosis.

Purified water may also be found in your supermarket aisle, and this water has been treated to remove both minerals and smaller particles. Hikers are familiar with this difference, because water purifiers remove particles smaller than a micron, while microfilters typically filter down to about 1 micron — an absolute 1 micron filter is sufficient to eliminate cryptosporidium and giardia cysts, but not small enough to get rid of bacteria and viruses. Water may be treated by reverse osmosis or chemically, e.g. addition of iodine, to remove contaminants to this level. Most home systems don’t filter down to this level and won’t produce purified water. Not so much a problem unless you think livestock may have been using your water source, but something to keep in mind when purchasing a filtration system… it may not be filtering everything you think! And ideally, we want a little bit of flavor in our water, so it’s not necessarily desirable to filter out everything — “potable water” isn’t necessarily “purified water.”

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As I have written a few times before, my daughter Taylor has Kidney Disease. This kidney disease is something that she inherited from my wife and I so we have gone through a lot of testing and therapies but eventually she will need a transplant (from me).

Over the last couple of years one of the real problems that Taylor  has is that her Kidneys do not hold and retain her water as well as a normal person does. Because of this defect Taylor has to drink between 4 and 6 liters of water a day, a lot for a 14 year old.

Drinking so much water leaves little space in her stomach, or hunger even, for Taylor to eat very much food and over the last few weeks she has been eating less and less as she was starting to feel really sick in the morning. This led to a hospital visit AGAIN a little over a month ago and one of the Nephrologists at Alberta Childrens Hospital suggested an NG tube for now and a GI tube (a tube through from her abdomen to her stomach) when she can get scheduled for it.

What is an NG Tube

An NG tube is a little thin hose that goes up through a nostril, across the sinus cavity to the throat and then down into the stomach. Usually people that can not eat, or in Taylors case can not eat enough in a day, will get these tubes. The NG tube will last a month or so and there are some that are only rated to be used for a week. After the NG tube expires it is pulled back out through the nose and then a new one is inserted.

Taylor with her NG Tube

So first the NG Tube. I was not at the hospital the morning they put this tube in. What happens is that the nurse will put a tube in through the nose, down the throat, and into the stomach. The whole process takes only a minute or so but the feeling the first time around made Taylor crazy. She ended up in tears and panic for 40 minutes after the process but after the tube was in she was better and they were able to feed her food overnight through the tube for the next four nights at the hospital.

This is not the end of the NG tube though. Taylor has a BMI of about 15.5 which, by doing the math, puts her about 20-25 pounds underweight. Taylor pulled the GI tube out before she left the hospital that first week as planned but had to go back and put a 30 day tube back in herself and bring home a pump, this part I was definitely around for as my poor wife Michelle was terrified of going through the panic again with her little girl.

NG Tube Training for Taylor and I

So we went the next day for an afternoon appointment where a great nurse, Kathy, taught us the whole process. In about 20 minutes we learned all about how to put in the NG Tube, how to care for it to make sure it is inserted properly, and then Taylor got to put in her own tube. This is a very important process as Taylor always feels the need to have control over herself and by being able to put in the NG Tube she felt like she was in complete control over this part of her Kidney Disease.

The NG Tube insertion went a little slow but Taylor was able to get the tube in and was able to get it swallowed into her stomach and checked with no tears, no panic, and a sense of pride that she did it. Man, I was so excited that I was beaming with pride for her!

The next couple hours we learned about the pump that pumps in the food, the types of food, and the care of the NG Tube and cleaning. It was a lot to take in but we learned a lot and thanks to Kathy we felt very confident that we could do this ourselves at home.

Nestle Kid Essentials

Over the first month with this magical tube in (which still drives her crazy) she would eat and drink as she normally would, but the great thing is that at night while she is sleeping she is able to get a formula that is super high in calories and is mixed with water. This way she is able to finally get all the nutrients and liquids that she needs in a 24 hour period.

There are a few small maintenance things that we have had to get used to. Taylor has to check the tubes placement by pulling a bit of stomach fluid up in a syringe just before attaching the pump to her NG Tube, she has to flush it with water right after as well as the IV bag getting flushed with water. And she has to apply new bandages to her cheek to keep the hose in the right place. Not to bad and all this only takes a few minutes.

Taylor has since gone in one more time to change tube  just last week but over the last five weeks she has gained 11 and a half pounds which on her frame is an amazing accomplishment. She is getting a GI Tube put in on June 13th and that tube goes in through the stomach and does not have to be changed nearly as much. Should be a great lifestyle change.

One of the real reasons that I write this article is just to give some hope and confidence to parents out there that need to do the same thing that we just went through. The prospect of getting a tube put down your childs or even your own throat is a little fearful for anyone. You just have to trust in the doctors and nurses that have lots of experience with this and know the ins and outs of making it a little more comfortable experience.

Feeding Using an NG Tube, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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