Hi Cathy G,
Thanks for your thoughts. It's really helpful to hear from someone midpoint int he road I'm starting down.

My feeling about the PEG are complicated, and surely part of it is vanity (which is not helpful, but it's there and I should be honest with myself).

But the other factor is everyone also stresses exercising, and I think that the PEG will interfere with my yoga, weights and cross trainer/treadmill/spin activity.

So I will try to avoid it. My Med Onc. says 80% of his patients in NH (I'm in northern MA) avoid the PEG successfully, while my rad Onc. is more clearly proPEG. If I was the RO, I would probably favor the PEG for most patients, too, seeing as the best outcome for his therapy-- in exclusion to the patient's life overall-- would probably be with the PEG.

But it's my body, and I am the only one who will live in it during this treatment. So I will try to continue with oral feeding (my docs will not consider the nasal feeding tube that David used successfully).

And they agree that if I have trouble, they can do the PEG operation at midpoint, and if it is necessary for my recovery, I won't kick.

We'll see what this journey has in store for me.

Head and neck cancer,
Squamous cell carcinoma,
HPV p16, Stage 3N (6/14) Occult origin;
58 year old male 35 rads & 2.5 doses Cisplatin chemo 7/10/14> 8/25/14
1.5 years clear of cancer, at this point.

"This, too is part of Life's Rich Pageant!"