The Feeding Tube

It turned out I was going to need one more operation - to place a feeding tube into my stomach. The official name for this tube is a Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy tube, or PEG tube.

PEG tube

Often with my kind of cancer and radiation, the mouth becomes so sore that it's a real chore to eat. The solution to that is to have the tube put into the stomach before the actual radiation starts. This made sense to me, so I had my tube implanted on Tuesday, March 13th. This was an even easier surgery - I didn't have to go under general anesthesia, it was more of a "twilight sleep." The surgery was just a little over an hour and I woke up in recovery feeling fairly good.

I stayed overnight in the hospital one night. That first night, I didn't have anything to eat at all - not by mouth or by the tube - it was all intravenous. The next morning, they tested out the tube with a half-can of special formula designed for these types of tubes. That went down fine. A few hours later, I got a nice surprise - lunch! Egg salad sandwich and peaches, and it tasted really good. Around 3 in the afternoon, they gave me another feeding of 1 can through the tube. No problems, no nausea, so I got to go home a couple of hours later.

(NOT my tummy; tube looks like this).

Life with a feeding tube is a bit different. I "eat" 2 cans of the formula via the tube in the morning. It takes time to get the supplies together: food, syringe, water for flushing, towels, etc. so I get it out of the way in the morning while I still have the energy. I do this while lying propped up in bed. I also sleep in my bed at night. No more nights in the chair.

One of the nurses asked me while I was still in the hospital if I had an actual hospital bed at home. I told her no, and she seemed a bit concerned, but I found that the trick was to find a spot where you're comfortable. I wasn't sure I could do this at first, but I developed two different reclining positions in the bed using the decorative pillows and my own regular sleeping pillow. You just have to experiment so you get comfortable. I prop myself up higher when I'm feeding. They want you to be at least a 30 degree angle when you feed, but it's easier for me to be higher up. I'm still reclined but not practically lying down.

I had two in-home follow up visits with a nurse to check on the tube. She was happy with how my incision was healing and how I was doing with the tube feeding.