Hi all - My sister Cathy has a PEG tube - right now she has managed to get up to 4 cans of a high cal Ensure type liguid called Isosource a day - that gets her 1500 calories.She jsut can't take all that volume. Has anyone tried adding anything to these to boose the calories? There is a product called Polycose which you can get in liquid or powder form - when you add it to anything it's supposed to boost calories without adding volume - has anyone tried anything like that? Cathy was only 100 pounds when she had her surgery and is way down from that now.

Hi Carol,
My mother-in-law used the polycose in everything. The doc said it would be better than her filling up on empty calories 'cause she drank her tea without sugar. I don't know if it helped any but it has no taste and it does add calories so just put it in everything.
Karen

KarenC - thanks - we actually have left a message for the nutritionist at the cancer centre about this too.

Where in Ontario are you?

Carol,
I'm in Oshawa and my mother-in-law is closer to you in Markham. Tomorrow we make the trip again to Princess Margaret to see her oncologist. Her G.P found a "mass" in her cheek last week that is suspicious, so here we go again!!
Karen

Karen - what I've learned from this board is that you have to alwasy keep this in mind - it's not cancer until they say it's cancer.

Carol,

You can also check out Scandi Shakes. They have more calories in the same volume as most of the other drinks like Ensure and Boost.

Rosie

Carol: I added Carnation Instant Breakfast to Ensure type drinks. That added about 100 calories to each serving. I also could only take four cans a day. Good luck and hope all goes well.

HI all - the dietician switched Cathy to something called Resource 2.0 which has 475 calories in a juice box size container - so if she can manage 4 a day that's 1900 cal.

A question about weight gain - how fast does the weight come back? I heard that if you can boost your calories sufficiently its about a pound a week. Does that sound right?

Once my weight came back, it was 12 pounds the first week, 3-4 after that. 3 months later it is a total of 25. I think it would depend more on the metabolism of the individual. I can fluctuate my weight 2-3 lbs in as many days.

Ed

Hi Carol,

When I was feeding myself Jevity and it was an 8oz. can. It contained 250 calories per can. I mixed carnation Instant Breakfast (1 Pkg.) to every two cans I injected into my peg tube. This added 120 calories four times a day. I was taking in about 2600 calories per day. I am also a small man, nornal weight of 145 lbs. I was able to inject two cans per feeding with no problem. I also crushed a lactaid pill and mixed it in, It kept me solid. I topped it off with about 6 ounces of Gatorade and finished with a water flush of the tube of 8 oz, of water. Remember to always flush the tube with water when done.

Also when full the stopper on the tube would pop open if I bent over. That was a real treat!!!
We learned to use a small rubber band to make sure it couldn't pop open.

I got back to my normal weight in about 6 weeeks.

Dan