I'll start by saying that the tube is probably a good idea. For myself I was totally resistant to the idea because one of my fears was that the cancer was so advanced that I would permanently need the tube (it wasn't and I didn't). In my case inserting the tube was the worst of the procedure. Because of previous stomach surgery and how extraordinarly burnt my throat was from radiation they had to do surgery to put the tube in. It was a big incision and I was in a lot of pain for a couple of days. After I started recovering from the surgery the tube was relatively problem free. I was always in some discomfort at the tube site and others have told me that they have also experienced that. However, the pain was mild and certainly tolerable as opposed to not being able to swallow at all. For me the difficulties were more psychological than physical. I did still lose a lot of weight before, during, and after the tube. The tube does not smell and you can still shower without having to wrap it or cover the site. It's kind of a pain to travel with all the equipment, syringes, bags, pump, food, etc. but I did some sort overnight trips. We did decide to cancel a couple of plane trips right after 9/11 mostly because I was still so weak but I also didn't want to have to deal with explaining all of my paraphernalia to security.