Anne, I toughed it out without a PEG tube. And tough is the right word. My oncologist and her nurse had told me that I could do it if I really applied myself. I had no idea it would be that arduous, and in the last few weeks of RT began wishing I'd had the tube put in.

But it is of course possible and lots of us have done it. It was a daily battle against fairly excruciating pain. Maybe because I've been a cluster headache person throughout most of my adult life, which is about the worst pain imaginable, I was better able to tolerate it. In any event I got through it with the lidocaine and pure determination - which is a quality you (and everyone else here) have already demonstrated by what you've been through to this point, so I'm sure you'll hang in there.

Even so I lost 30 pounds, not uncommon, and struggled to keep my daily intake of calories near to what I needed. Obviously I didn't always succeed...! By the two week point I was strictly on liquid nutrition and room temperature water, and didn't even begin to try very thin solids - like oatmeal - until a good 2-3 months post RT. Even now I still feel a lump swallowing, and usually take a liquid meal once a day.

My best to you. You're going to do fine.
David2