State Developmental Center

Another 5:45 am morning saw me at the Developmental Center. It is a large facility housing about 300 mentally retarded adults. I was assigned to a nurse administering medications. It was a new experience since most of them have gastric tubes. A G tube goes directly into the stomach from outside the body. The medications are crushed and mixed with water and then placed in a large syringe and pushed in through the tube. Some of them can fight it by clenching their stomach muscles, but for the most part, they were all pretty good about it. I was surprised a bit when we opened up one tube, and it spurted and made a bunch of noises that I learned was the gas in her stomach. After we were done, we started their feedings. The ones without G tubes just needed their medications crushed and mixed with applesauce and then put in their mouths for them to swallow. I heard that I was placed in a building that doesn't have many behavioural problems so I really didn't mind what I was doing very much. They just seemed like such sweet people and are well loved and taken care of there.