Anyone needed a feeding tube during chemo and immunotherapy?

@earle, there is a boatload of great information here on the forum. I recommend going to the Esophageal Cancer group page https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/esophageal-cancer/ and searching for anything you have questions about.

For example see these discussions about dilation using the keyword "dilation": https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/esophageal-cancer/

I love that "working it in with a normal life" is your normal. As normal as possible is good, right? 🙂

Thank you to those of you that responded. It means a lot to me. He is scheduled for Tuesday to have it put in. I will be learning how to use and take care of it while we are back to Mayo for the tube. Thanks again. I may be back on here with future questions. Good to know you are here

@colleenyoung Thanks for those also. I've had one unfortunate aspiration incident, which was my fault and which showed up on the PET scan, and that convinced me that I needed to be satisfied with the soft food in the mornings and depend on the tube until they can stretch enough lumen in my esophagus so I can forget the tube. I have an additional problem that most, thank goodness, don't have and that's spasms. They can be momentary or last hours. Everything's been tried but Botox, which carries its own burden of side effects...

@cancersucks1953, how did it go with putting in the feeding tube. Are you both getting the hang of things? How are you doing? Questions?

I've had a G-tube in place for >5yrs. I've posted several times on this forum describing the proper use and care G-tubes. I just replaced mine myself yesterday. Easy-peezey.

Hi so i had my j tube put in before my chemo treatments started. I could not swallow any type of food and very little liquid. Needed nutrition and put weight on before surgery. Did most of my feedings over night. Biggest part is to keep your tube clean I flushed mine 3 times a day before and after feedings and once more during the day. Never had any issues. Hope this helps wishing you the best. Scott

Thank you for your reply. My husband, John, had to have his surgery before chemo. I know that's almost unheard of and it's hard to explain... He had a biopsy done on an esophageal mass which came back negative. His doctor, however, said he ought to have another biopsy done because the mass looked too much like cancer to ignore. This biopsy came back negative, also, but the mass was growing rapidly.. She had oncologists look at the endoscopy pictures . They were sure it was cancer. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get Medicare to pay for a PET scan which confirmed malignancy. By this time we had lost a lot of time, and the surgeon decided it would be best to go ahead and remove it, and do chemo and radiation when he recovered from the surgery. It' been 2 years now since his surgery and chemo/radiation. A routine follow-up endoscopy showed that his cancer had recurred in the same spot in the esophagus. He is now on a folfox protocol. He is so nauseated that he can hardly eat anything, and has lost down to under 100 lbs. A feeding tube might be coming very soon, as the prescription anti nausea prescription medications aren't helping at all. It's good to hear you are able to do yours at home. I hope we can work that out.

@earle I walked a few miles in your shoes. I was diagnosed with achalasia >40 yrs ago and suffered agonizing esophageal spasms on a near daily basis. Both wasn't an option at the time. I found that the use of sublingual nitrates or longer acting isosorbide dinitrate were fairly effective in providing spasm relief. I also used a dihydopyridine calcium channel blocker like nifedipine or diltiazam on a daily basis.
I eventually developed mega-esophagus and was subsequently diagnosed with stage 4 ESCC in 01/2019.

@jlb1

@bob5246
Hi, my husband Bob had surgery last December 2024. He also did not have chemotherapy or radiation before. However, he did get a J-tube because of an anastomotic leak and stricture. The doctor told him he had gotten all of the cancer, and he did not need chemo.
Fast forward, he was scheduled for a colonic interposition, a surgical procedure to replace the damaged esophagus that remained. Upon working him up for the surgery, they discovered he had metastasis to the liver, throat, and lymph nodes. He will start chemo and immunotherapy this Saturday and will be on it for what remains the rest of his life.
We honestly did not see this coming.