by Debra Wallace
Christian is tube fed and somewhere along the line a dietitian determined that he didn't have enough sodium in his formula so it needed to be added. They gave us a bottle of concentrated salt water and we went home. Then it ran out.
This bottle of salt water was unique. Not only did it contain both salt and water, but it was created by someone with an advanced degree, and it cost $40 a month. Even though I don't personally pay for it, I also don't feel comfortable wasting our collective money. So I asked GastroEnterology how to mix our own. They sent us instructions for mixing "normal saline." The problem is that we would have had to give him a gallon a day or something. Making, mixing, storing... it's not practical.
So Jason and his chemical engineering self figured out how much salt we needed in how much water and off we went.
Now, nurses cannot administer "medications" in an unlabeled bottle or without doctor's orders. How this is a medication I'm not sure, but I guess because it could be mixed in a pharmacy and because it's given through a hole in one's stomach, that makes it a medication.
You might think that acquiring salt water mixed by a pharmacist in a labeled bottle would be easy. You may have overlooked the fact that not just any pharmacy will mix this specialized compound because it does not have a medication number in the medication number database. Only a hospital pharmacy will attempt such a feat. And Medicaid pays $40 for it.
Jason and I see a huge business opportunity here. We'll be opening a salt water production facility here in our home. Should you find yourself in need of any concentration of salt water just call 555-SALT and we'll be happy to assist you.
