I have a question on how much input before you gain weight. I am 4 weeks post op fron a neck disection and pech flap, After 8 days i came home and my weight was 122. I am 5'7" tall. My normal weight was right around 142 lbs.
I started out putting 8 cans of Jevity per day in my feeding tube which is 2000 calories, along with 1000cc of water. My weight stayed right around 122 to 124. I started adding 4 bags od carnation instant breakfast powder to the Jevity
which added another 520 calories per day. I still remained at 124 lbs every morning. Today I added 2 cans of Insure Plus which are 350 calories per can with 7 cans of Jevity along with the carnation instant breakfast. This daily total would equal just over 2900 calories. I feel like I should be adding at least 1 to 2 lbs. per day? Any Suggestions? I have always been rather skinny. Dan

Dan, I feel you are somehow too pushy and harsh to your body expecting to gain weight a short while after your surgery. Don't get on the weight scale every morning to check if you have gained any weight. Cancer patients lose weight very easily but they need to double the effort to gain a pound. The more anxious you feel about your weight, the greater the hurdle there will be. Just take in as much food as you can and weigh yourself once every week then you may feel a little progress. I took almost a year to gain back all my lost weight and some took a longer time and some a shorter. People vary. No fixed and fast rule.

Karen stage 4 tonsil cancer diagnosed in 9/01.

Dan, your body uses up lots of calories just in the healing process...Packer was 118 lbs after first surgery 2 yrs ago......He`s now 185 lbs just on tube feedings, we told him he had to bulk up and he never stopped ! He used and still does, Gainer`s Fuel 2500 from Twin Labs along with his 8 cans of jevity plus........You can get Gainer`s Fuel from the Vitamin Shop..............Dee

Dan, these next few months the trick will be just keeping the wieght you have on. When I started this (or)deal I weighed about 170, now down to 130-ish, and this is 3 months after finishing the last go-round of radiation/chemo. Wasn't on a PEG tube either time, and have been eating pretty much "normal" solid foods since beginning of June, from the second go-round. Or at least normal for me anyway.

As a supplement, even with eating my normal diet, I've also been doing ensure/Instant breakfast when I've got it available. They don't sell either around here, nor any other diet supplement, so I have to bring it in from HK in the case of Ensure, or have the Instant Breakfast shipped over from the U.S.

As Packer and Karen have said, you're body's going to use a lot of calories just to heal. Also, I imagine the radiation and Chemo are going to mess around with your system and metabolism, so just concentrate on maintining at this point. After these 3 months, it finally looks like I might be starting to gain, or at least not have as much trouble maintaining.

As a side note, I was going through some old clothes yesterday, getting rid of some suits that at one point fit tight. My wife was telling me to keep them, I'll be getting fatter... I put on the pants, and looked like the "after" picture on a weight loss advertisement. Good 4 inches too big the pants were. Out they went.

Dan,
I went from around 170 to about 152 while on the feeding tube. I quit losing at the 152 level and the cans of formula held me steady there until I could start eating again. I can't imagine that one could gain weight on a PEG, and I was happy that it allowed my weight to remain stable. As I began eating and eventually got off of the tube altogether ( after about 10 months )I began to gain weight and now weigh about 160.
I feel good, my clothes fit pretty well, although they are still a little loose and I am happy with my progress, but gaining weight is still slow going. This stuff takes patience.

Keep on trucking,
Danny G.

Dan,
I lost 20lbs. after the combination of a radical neck and 7 weeks of rad. .Never was on a pet tube

My comment here is that my dietican told me that if I added 500 calories I could look to gain one pound per week, or if I increased my intake by 1000 I could look for 2lbs. per week, but I should not experct to gain anything more in a one week period.

This also means it will be up to a 20 week process to get my 20lbs. back...Give it time and don't strees, after all thats why they call it
DIS-ease...

we have various responses..

with my peg during rad/chemo treatment, i had no weight change.... steady at around 182.. that's with 2800 cal/day and no problems keeping ensure down. my throat was toast and everything was by tube.

during the following yr, my weight remained constant as i used the tube as i wanted.

so, don't suppose that you will lose weight... not everyone does.... a nutritionist can tell you how many cal/day you should try to consume.

cu,
larryb