In keeping with my vow to play nice OCF style, if you are getting radiation to your head, neck or throat, or if you are having surgery, you NEED a PEG. Now can TOUGH people do without what they NEED. Yes indeed. Unfilled needs do not necessarily result in death, but they are less than optimal. Plants NEED adequate sunshine, water, etc but we all see straggly specimens hanging in there. People NEED LOVE, but often times go without it.

David hit it on the head exactly in his laconic style. To me, getting a PEG meant LOSING to Cancer. Feeding tubes were for the terminally ill and I had watched more than my fair share of loved ones hooked up to PEGs as they were dying. Being able to choke down my Ensure Plus sip by sip with an intervening sip of selzter - taking a half an hour a can over the bathroom sink seemed a small price to pay at the time. I lost almost fourty pounds but I had such great physical fitness and lean muscle mass that health was not an issue. Even emaciated, I was stronger than most. Being Peg Free was my "Magic Feather" just like in the Dumbo movie of my youth that let the elephant with the big ears FLY. Ironically I was the dumbo for not getting my PEG before treatment.

Charm, you are so right about that Peg. I hope I am the only idiot looking over the fence. If I fall, I want to fall alone.

I think we can all agree on one thing. The PEG is a lifeline for some people that end up on them after oral cancer for life. This is the most extreme version of it's use.

I'm all for using a nasal tube if the term of need is short, and the social implications of it are tolerable. No surgery, no ill effects. There are no absolutes. Believe me I was part of the "I don't want a PEG tube" crowd right up till they forced me to have it. Retrospectively it was a mental thing, only really sick people have tubes hanging out of them right? And I am going to get through this for sure right? Why should I have to have one? DUH. Every tool that make this a faster, healthier, more "wining/healing" travel path through this process should be on the table. Not all of them are things we really psychologically want. Not all of this process of getting through it is rational nor logical.

Brian

That was part of the fear that prompted my rabid anti-peg stance: once I had it, I would never get rid of it,
When you decide to update your PEG article please post it for comments like the mucositis. I have lots to add about getting it early enough to have a big 20 FR instead on my dinky 14FR that constantly clogs and needs an interventional radiologist instead of a gastroenterologist to put in.
Oh, and some people would say that my use of the PEG to pour WINE directly into my stomach is the most extreme version. It lets me toast my lovely wife at dinner and helps with the pain

Charm, I did try a beer the other day; put a Stella Artois in my Kangaroo bag so the foam would die down -- There were a lot!! of bubbles in the line and I thought I'd be burping up a storm, but not so -- Couldn't taste it, of course, but it did make me very sleepy. Been there, done that!