Hello,
my name is Jennie and I have a son of 41 years who has tonsillar cancer. I am here to see if i can get some questions answered
I forgot to mention that I am in the UK where the methods of treatment seem to be different. My son has had chemo and rad. and is fed by tube and developed an abcess in the tonsil bed, this has burst and the excrutiating pain he had been feeling has subsided, He has had a biopsy on the abcess and the doctors are being very pessimistic and are talking of an operation to remove the rest of the tumout. As yet we do not know if the abcess has live cancer cells. We will know on the 13th February.
Jen,
Welcome, please tell us more about the treatments he has had so far and then just fire a way with your questions.
Tim
Thanks for the warm welcome, Yim.
My son is fed by PEG and my ex.husband and I have taken over feeding him as it seemed that he was not getting (to me) enough nutrition. He was on Fresubin 7 times a day which gave him about 2000 calories if he had them all, there days when perhaps he would have only three if the pain during treatment got too bad. He has lost nearly 40lbs in weight. We cook fresh food for him constantly and to us he looks so much better than we've seen him for a long time. I am very interested to see if anyone esle has done this or have relied on pre-package liquid meals.
I hope I have posted this in the right place or should I copy this post else where.
thank you for your time and attention
I was only on the PEG for a couple of weeks and really only used a few times. There are quite a few folks around here that have been on the PEG for a longer time. They are very innovative for what they can cook and get down the PEG. Amy from Arkansas (user name JAM) comes to mind. She is caregiver to her husband John and also a wealth of information. There are lots of others that will help I'm sure.
What part of the UK are you from?
Hi! Tim
I was born in south London but now live in Essex on the east coast.
A little blender or food processor will enable you to chop up just about anything and put it down the PEG as long as it's liquid enough.
There are a number of books around about liquid meals also.
Being lazy, once I lost my appettite, I went totally to liquid food and the PEG for nourishment (7 x 350cal = 2,450cal/day), but kept on swallowing water and my medications (if swallowing gets to be really tough, there are manual pill grinders available, but one must check with pharmacist because time-release tablets shouldn't be ground -- Many of the meds are also available in liquid form).
Some folks with extensive surgery rely on the packaged liquid nourishments for the rest of their lives.
Thanks for the info, Pete. Will check thise out in the meantime
my husband has been on a PEG for about 2 years. He cannot swallow. Does anyone know how swallow can be helped. He had State IV cancer of the larynx.
I moved this to it's own topic (gerryw) please reply to her there.
jen bea,
I lived in England from 1987 until 1992. I loved it there, we actually lived in Trimley St Mary, just outside Felixstowe. I loved going to London around Christmas time for the shopping. My wife is British, she was born near Cambridge, but her folks live in Grimsby now. We do get back there every couple of years for a visit. I would live in England if I could afford it. Maybe one day I'll win the lottery.
Thanks for your help Amy, will still try to feed him our selves as we know that the smell of food cooking and the burps he gets(!) when PEG feeding keep him interested in food, which we don't want to be taken away.
Stoj, the same area East Anglia!!