Feeding Tube and Muscle Loss

[Guest guest]

My husband,79, with late onset CMT no gene found, has been in the

hospital for two weeks. It started with diarrhea, and when they

fixed one thing, another would go wrong. The original diagnosis is

IBD of some sort, Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. When they finally

let him try to eat, it made him cough. He has developed weak pouches

in his esophagus. They have put in a feeding tube. They say it's

temporary; when he gets stronger, he'll be better. When he was in

the CCU, he got lots of attention, but on the telemetry floor, he is

lucky to see his nurse every two hours.

I have two questions.

There is Vitamin B 6 in his food, .57 mg every 8 ounces, and he gets

3 oz an hour; it's called Optimental, therapeutic, elemental

nutrition for malabsorptive conditions with EPA and DHA for Immune

Support. Is this amount of B 6 going to hurt him?

The other concern is that he has been totally inactive for so long,

he can't even stand up. All this muscle loss with his being

bedridden, can any of it be reversed with his CMT? He is supposed to

get physical therapy, but it doesn't happen every day, and then it's

10 minutes of being propped up in bed and moving his legs.

As he gets more alert, he gets more depressed. They will eventually

move him to skilled nursing, and then we will have to hire full time

help when he gets home, I assume.

Elinor