Wow, Michelle, I am impressed with how thoroughly you are gathering your information. You are going to be an excellent caregiver. Tom is right about the constipation---you need to stay on top of it.I got it right off the bat from the Zofran(anti-nausea med for chemo) My doctor told me in the beginning to take a stool softener, so I did according to the label( One pill twice a day). In reality what I needed what 6 colace, 2 senokot, 1 dose miralax, and 1 dose lactulose a day. It can be quite a problem.
I think your husband should definately get the PEG--he may not use it; I didn't need mine. But it's an excellent insurance policy.
Take care, Teresa

Hi Michelle. As you can see by my signature and dx line I have a dx sort of like your husband. I have a 2 1/2 year old as well. My wife was a real trooper through my treatments as it sounds like you will be. We took it one day at a time and I am now back to playing with my little boy and regularly being a pain to her. Ha Ha. Today it is mostly just for fun though. David's advice about the CIB VHC is the best one I had. It helped me get over the hump at the end of my treatments without a feeding tube. I lost 50lbs in all. 12 after treatments were finished. The CIB VHC really helped, I wish I would have known about it early in my treatments, I think it would have helped then as well. Anyway you guys hang in there. P.S. I still drink them for breakfast just because I like them and they are nutritional.

Thank you all so much for the positive thoughts and messages. I have made notes on the constipation issue with pain meds and will ask the doctor about it today. The CIB VHC sounds like just the ticket and glad to see so many of you recommending it. I will look into purchasing those to be ready.
We are off to meet with the MO regarding chemo this morning so I will let you guys know what tx is planned later this evening.

Michelle,

Your questions just really exhausted me (lol) and made me revisit my state of mind last July (ugh..it was awful--trying to slug thru all the info and decisions.)

I am choosing to answer a couple of your ??

Re the PEG: Our experience was nothing but positive. My very tough hubby..pain threshold unbelievable...got to the point that he could not eat. We were so glad that we made the decision to have the PEG placed in the beginning (and while they did that they also placed a mediport...wonderful.) I still made sure that Bill would swallow something everyday usually by giving him a small bottle of Gatoraid Rain and saying that he needed to finish by days end. But the PEG really was a godsend and a non-issue after the first week. Bill was able to wean off of it at about week two post treatment.

RE your hubby working: He will probably be able to work full time the first week or two, but after that, I think your expectation is just working from home on the phone. His full time job needs to be getting thru treatment and that alone is hard enough. Bill did work at his computer some but the brain fog that occurs (some folks call it Chemo Brain)and just generally feeling lousy makes work very hard. Bill's voice got pretty gravelly and the mucous would make him hard to understand.

Re constipation: Our MO suggested good ole Milk of Magnesia to clear constipation and then stool softeners...worked wonderfully.

Hope this helps...hang in there,

Deb