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Any needed a feeding tube during chemo and immunotherapy?

Posted by donnawmsbrady @donnawmsbrady, Oct 16 12:20pm

My husband might need a feeding tube during chemo and immunotherapy. Has anyone had experience with this?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Esophageal Cancer Support Group.

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Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | 5 days ago
In reply to @earle "@colleenyoung Thanks! I wish we'd had that we'd had that collection of resources six months or..." + (show)
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@colleenyoung Thanks! I wish we'd had that we'd had that collection of resources six months or so ago. I've been on one since early March. In fact, I'm on my second, the first having been replaced ten days ago, when the opening tab broke off. I also resisted at first and lost about 30 pounds on a soft diet, and I'm short. I've regained about 10. I'm not totally dependent. In fact, I eat a pastry and a couple of cups of coffee every morning. At 6 months, my PET and EUS + biopsies showed me cancer free, but I have a stricture about a third of the way down, courtesy of the proton radiation. I've had one dilation and I'm due for another on 11/13. I may need a couple more. Timing and working it in with a normal life is the main aggravation now. An oncologist friend (not my doc) compared them to raising a difficult child. You get used to it... 🙂

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@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/?search=dilation&index=discussions

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

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cancersucks1953 | @cancersucks1953 | 5 days ago

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

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earle | @earle | 5 days ago
In reply to @colleenyoung "@earle, there is a boatload of great information here on the forum. I recommend going to..." + (show)
Profile picture for Colleen Young, Connect Director @colleenyoung

@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/?search=dilation&index=discussions

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

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@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...

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