[quote=Kristen S]Hello to the other Kristen S!

Thanks for the encouraging and supportive comments about my upcoming trip! Yes, I'm planning on keeping the PEG tube in and if I need it, it's there. If not, oh well. I've had it in since February so I'm pretty used to it by now.

Did you feel that your tube came out to early? Were you eating w/o any difficulty about 4 months post treatments? My oncologist said that most of his patients leave in their tubes for about 3-4 months post treatment. I'm okay with that!

Thanks for the warning about the sun. I've already have 1 squamous cell carcinoma and multiple basal cell carcinomas removed from various areas of my body, so I am very cautious about sun exposure. Somebody else had told me about the sun exposure and radiation. Also my arm and leg where I had grafting done. I was told that both sites should be covered up from any sun exposure for a year. When an oncology nurse told me at the beginning of this journey that I wouldn't really feel back to "normal" for a year, I didn't believe her. Now I do!!!

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I'm pretty sure I was still having some difficulty with calorie intake, but I have food issues anyway. I was back to close enough to normal for me, which is probably not where anyone ought to be. Taste was still a big problem, and spices and mint and stuff burned like crazy (still do). I was taking in enough food by mouth that I wasn't using the tube, and that was the main thing. And ... given my luck with surgeons ... I was having issues with the doctor who did my PEG (it needed replacing at one point, due to severe pain, and he wouldn't do anything! had to go to a different surgeon in the same practice, who had me in the hospital within the hour to get it fixed, sigh) ... so for me, the sooner I got it out, the safer I felt. Otherwise, no, hurrying is not something I'd recommend. And even then, it didn't heal correctly after the removal, and I couldn't get them to listen. The surgeon who did my chemo port took a look at it for me, and could immediately tell what was wrong and how to fix it, in her office, in about five minutes, and then it started healing just fine. I've been through some truly odd situations. So ... there's another weird bit of advice ... if for some reason you do end up removing it before your trip, give it time to HEAL before you travel. Otherwise, keep it till after the trip, for sure. Usually the healing is a piece of cake, but every now and then one of us gets something wonky. (Mine had a thing called granulation, which is actually not all that rare, and it was easy for me to search and find out that's what was going on, which is why it was so easy for the other surgeon to recognize and fix quickly ... but it had to be caught before it could be fixed. Not dangerous, just annoying.)

'Normal' becomes an entirely new word ... but you'll get there, and you'll find it, and it'll be good. I love your spunk, that's for sure. Attitude and willingness has a LOT to do with healing (so long as you take those breaks! LOL). I'm impressed you can do as much as you can ... I was given orders to be a couch potato while I had the tube in. And then, as I was getting to feeling better, nearly a year after I got the darn thing out ... I fell and broke my shoulder and had to be a couch potato all over again! (Can't put a cast on a shoulder, just put an arm in a sling and not move.) However, during the cancer years and the recovery years (and the broken shoulder season) I did manage to attend enough of my tae kwon do lessons to continue earning rank, and everyone cheered when I got my first stripe black belt. I *know* they passed me partly on spunk, since I was kind of fragile and they didn't go at me as hard as they would some of the other folks, but it was still earned, and it was one of the things that kept me going. Just NOT during the PEG tube season. And not when I was having to sit for six weeks with the darn shoulder.

That said, all my scout groups have me under strict orders not to break any more bones or come down with any more strange illnesses or allergies, because it always seems to happen when we have a trip planned. I am a walking Murphy's Law, I think... may your luck be better than mine! (Maybe since we have the same name, the odds balance and you get the good side of Murphy? I can hope!)