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Has anyone made it through radiation and chemo without a feeding tube?
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: Mar 4 3:13pm | Replies (22)Comment receiving replies
Nope. I had a Tube placed before starting chemo, and radiation, and used it up until surgery. I was fortunate and never had any issues with the tube. It was a "gravity feed" type of tube and worked quite well. Another tube was placed during surgery that required a "pump" to dispense the nutrition. I came home with this Tube, but used only a couple times. I accidentally snagged it while showering, and it came out. That was the end of the feeding tube.
Replies to "Nope. I had a Tube placed before starting chemo, and radiation, and used it up until..."
I chose not to have a feeding tube and I chose not to have a catheter. I avoided to unnecessary although simple procedures to start this journey. My personal experience was that after two weeks of treatment, I was able to eat small bites of regular food without any complications, my journey is not everyone’s, but as long as you are able to get your food, nutrition, via smoothies or soups or similar items, I didn’t see the need
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I've seen this a few times... and I wonder why they bother to install both a G tube... and then a J tube. I thought that the usual thinking was we'll leave the stomach be, since it will be used as the new esophagus... no need to put a hole in it. But yes, G tube feeding is simpler and quicker than J tube feeding.
So... did you use the same feeds... or were you able to liquefy and use almost anything with the G tube vs the J tube? I assume you were having issues swallowing early on (at diagnosis) for them to put in the G tube.