Hi, i would just like to say that aspiration pneumonia can be dangerous and it can occur again and again, so, the doctors are right in telling your husband to stop feeding by mouth. You did not mention how your husband is taking his nutrition, whether he has now gone back to using the PEG tube. My husband's home care nurse taught us a little trick for a blocked tube. We just put in a syringe of a soft drink -- like Coke or ginger ale or whatever. It shouldn't be flat though as the "trick" depends on the bubbles in the carbonated water pushing whatever is blocking the tube up and the blockage is resolved. We tried several times and each time it worked. Of course, we were advised to go to the ER if the trick should fail. But we never had the need to do that -- aspeiration pneumonia, though, sent my husband to the hospital several times.

Is your husband using Ensure or Boost or something similar? Have you considered using a nasal tube?

I don't know about the phlegm situation. But the speech and language pathologist told us that even if my husband wasn't taking in anything by mouth, his saliva could still get into the lungs and over time, it might become a problem. Not taking in anything by mouth does minimize the chances of aspiration pneumonia.

I fully understand how upsettting the situation can be as I was there myself. It's very hard to be a caregiver when there's seemingly no solution to the problem. I would strongly suggest that you talk about this with your GP, or get a referral to a speech and language pathologist at the hospital. They can advise you and your husband on what to do and they may have a solution for the problematic phlegm. There are feeding specialists at the hospital, not just for cancer patients or survivors but for the elderly as well. Please do go and make use of their expertise.