Don,

Week four seems to be the time the walls start caving in. And it happens pretty quickly. Bill was seemingly doing OK on the Friday of Week 3, eating and not having a lot of pain but by Monday or Tuesday of Week four he could not eat by mouth any more and needed pain meds. He remained solely on the PEG feedings, water supplements and meds until one week post treatment. I did put a small bottle of Gatorade Rain in front of him each day and asked that he sip that by mouth to keep him swallowing...I could monitor how much he got down just by looking at the bottle. The rest...supplement and water, I charted to make sure he got the required calories each day and I attribute that to his quick recovery post treatment.

The pain meds are the major culprit regarding being constipated. Even with a liguid diet of mainly supplements...it is still a problem. Bill's MO suggested good ole Milk of Magnesia to clear the constipation and then stool softeners to maintain and that worked very well.

Hope this helps, Deb