Anyone needed a feeding tube during chemo and immunotherapy?

@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.

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

@colleenyoung …Hi Colleen, The feeding tube has not been put in yet. The week we were scheduled he was in so much back pain that he couldn’t make the trip. They rescheduled for the first part of December. But in the meantime we have transferred to a different facility for his chemo treatments. Closer to home. Our new oncologist wants to do a couple more chemo treatments before a feeding tube is done. She is hoping for some shrinkage so perhaps he will be able to swallow. But he continues to lose weight. 50 pounds so far. On a good day he may get some soup down but that’s a hit and miss. He has no energy and Mayo stresses staying active. How is that possible with no energy? I’m worried but it doesn’t seem to be a priority. Oncologist says that having a feeding tube is a whole bunch of new problems.

@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.

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.