Sorry to hear he has joined the club no one wants to be part of. Nutrition is critical during and after treatments. The body is being bombarded with things that not only kill the cancer but some amount of heathy tissues and cells around the treatment area as well. So it is in a state of daily repair which requires a sound diet to optomise not just high calories, but balanced nutrition, and additional proteins.

Most people lose weight during treatments and some require interventions like feeling tubes for a period of time to keep their nutrition optimum. The mouth is very sensitive to radiation and chemo, and he will ultimately develop oral mucocitis sores as a result. This can be wildly painful depending on the treatments and their duration, often requiring pain medication to tolerate it. He must have the calories and the balance of proteins, carbs, and healthy fats that give his body the building blocks of keeping up with the damage. But given his diabetes, you will need to be more careful than others about what he gets fed. Obviously there is likely a nutrition specialist on his team to help you sort this out. But we can help as well.

Blending things for him is a good start for as long as he is able to eat by mouth during treatment. By about week three, my mouth was too sore to do that, and I slacked on my eating, which when I lost 12% of my body weight the docs insisted on putting in a PEG tube for me to eat. I had that for about six months past the end of my treatments. Without it my healing would have taken much longer.

I would encourage him to as much as possible, continue to swallow and eat a soft diet normally, and even if he ends up with a feeding tube doing both types of feeding. Transitioning back to all oral eating will be much easier if he does not stop completely. But with a good blender like a Vitamix, you can make him things that will pack on weight and nutrition and taste good as well. When you need help with that please ask, I did it for years, before I became totally PEG tube dependent. I still blend everything for my PEG feedings as I have learned plenty about the shortcomings of canned pharma company foods. I would be happy to help you sort out what to blend for him if you want help in general, but given his diabetes you will need some professional input as well. Good luck to both of you as you go through this. We all wish him a rapid trip through treatment and a return to a normal life. B