Hello! My Mother is a oral (soft palate)survivor/ fighter. It has been a long fight for her! She was diagnosed in late July 2012. Her treatments started in early September. Prior to her first treatment the docs put in a peg tube that brought her many complications and a 2 week stay in the hospital:(. She was very ill and developed sepsis. Thanks goodness she was able to being treatment while still in the hospital. After 33 radiation treatments and 3 chemos the evil cancer is in remission! However there have been many issues since:) I cant even begin to go into detail about the problems she has had after surgeries to fix the bone loss and dying tissue in her mouth and now her losing her ability to swallow food. She has been only tube fed since the recent surgery which was the week of thanksgiving. She is back in the hospital because she is throwing up anytime food or meds are giving in her peg feeding tube. I have often read many posts on here but finally decided to join. Thank you in advance for all of your support. Good luck to each and everyone of you and your fight against this horrible disease!!!

Welcome to OCF. It is never a pleasant greeting as well all know why we come here. There is lots of information and people here who can offer their experiences and share their insights to help you get along.

Please do post your mother's details in your signature. It helps a lot to better understand her diagnosis and what is going on.

Thanks
Don

Welcome to OCF. Im so sorry your mother has been thru so much.

As far as your mother having current problems with throwing up due to using the feeding tube, I may offer you some suggestions. Usually that caused by how the food/formula is being delivered and how fast. By slowing down and/or watering down what is going into the tube will usually help. If your mother is in discomfort during a feeding then it could be a placement issue and would require further testing to see if everything is intact. Ive already been in agony whenever anything was attempted to be put into my feeding tube. The tube became dislodged and it was embedded in my abdominal wall. This is fairly uncommon but Ive known a few OC patients who have been in the same situation. As far as your mothers feeding go, she should be sitting up or in a recliner with her head up during the feedings, she should remain still for at least an hour after she is 'fed'. If she does not have a feeding pump, ask the doc for a prescription to get one from a medical supply company. This will enable you to slow down the feedings (start at 60ml per hour and gradually move it up from there every few days. This can run overnight while she sleeps as long as she is propped up on a few pillows. The gravity method and push method may be too fast for her system to tolerate the feedings so a feeding pump could be what works for her. I cant do those ways either.

Hope these suggestions will bring some relief to her throwing up. Remember, everything she throws up must be put back in. Best wishes!

Hi Girls:
Glad you found perhaps the best place on the planet for this type of support. These people did wonderful things to help me get through that early phase when you're scared to death because you know nothing about this new beast in your body. And then they helped me get through treatment too. I owe all of them a big debt of gratitude.

So, sorry your mom is having so many problems. I didn't need a feeding tube, but I know of many who did. Hopefully the solution is something as simple as slowing the food delivery down or sitting upright during feeding.

Good luch with everything, we're here when you need us.

Tony