Hi Ben,
Kevin was not fond of the PEG idea either, but his doc was also pretty insistent. He had it put in, very easy procedure, but only used it a few times. It grossed him out so he forced Ensure down. He would do a lidocaine rinse and a shot of Lortab, then drink. It still hurt though. He ended up losing about 54 lbs. He had it to lose though, so he was lucky. That is something to consider also.
We are now a little over 3 months out from last tx and he is eating almost everything...except bananas burn like crazy!! They are the only thing that REALLY hurt now. He even ate steak tonight for the first time. He tried about a month out but choked a bit so red meat has been avoided since then. Tonight went well.
Something he did during the chemo was to take a probiotic. He had so much pain in his colon from the chemo I just didn't know what to do. The doc just kept giving him stronger and stronger pain meds which constipated him horribly and just made him a wreck. I got him Activia to try for a few days. The pain got better and things got back to normal. So with the next round of chemo we got Align. The doc said it was ok and he breezed through it. Well, not breezed, but compared to the first round it was way better.
Good luck with everything. We look forward to hearing from you as you proceed. You are NOT alone. I wish we had found this site prior to beginning tx. It was a LONELY 6-8 weeks.
Blessings,
Kathy