Nellie,

I haved loved backpacking in the mountains of SW Colo over the years. The side effects of my recent tongue ca have left me on a liquid diet. I can swallow but tongue doesn�t work well and no saliva. I�ve also been trying to figure out how I could get enough calories for a decent hike. My current staple is the Ensure Plus rich dark chocolate. 2 probs., weight,( over 3.5 lbs for 2100 calories and 78 grms of protein plus I�d need probably oanother 3 or 4 lbs of water.) and it only tastes decent real cold. Now with a G tube your actually better off: the SkandiShake powder envelopes have 600 calories and only weigh 85 grams but no protein; so you could get some whey powder protein from walmart wich also weighs nothing. The catch is these things don�t make a true solution � more of a suspension of tiny particles. So you need to test this out with the plunger on your G- Tube. By mouth they only taste decent mixed with milk, but w/ tube you could do it with water.

age 53 TxN2bM0 stage IV tongue and 2 nodes, non smoker, non-drinker, heavy plastic wrap exposure 25+ years, 2 surgeries, neck dissection, 60 GY IMRT+ cisplatin X5 completed 07/09, new primary on tongue 11/09, biopsy got it all, praise God! Tongue overly tethered to floor of mouth.