Barry was told not to eat anything but liquids or very mild, bland soft foods for 24 hours after recieving the PEG. In fact, he was feeling rather bad (in the stomach) -- lots of gas and some gastric reflux so he really didn't want much.The nurse and doctor at the section where they did the surgery went over the basic care of the surgical site and tube for the first 24 hours. We then went back to hospital the next day and our chemo nurse showed us how to flush the tube (which has to be done once a day, whether you use it or not) and clean the incision site. Barry was having bad reflux so they precribed Reglan (metoclompramide) which moves things through the stomach more quickly and that took care of the problem. However he lost about 4 pounds the first week after getting the PEG as he ate very little for several days right afterwards. He was also sore at the incision site and had difficulty getting into a comfortable sleeping position.

We used a large (surgical pad) gauze bandage and surgical tape to cover the PEG -- the tube was taped up against his abdomen and then covered with the pad as this prevented any "catching" of the dangling tube against clothing (or our dogs jumping up against it, ooof!). It was just important to make sure there was good air circulation. It healed fine and after about two weeks there was no more soreness.

Ironically, he was one of the few patients at Hopkins who never used his PEG, for some reason he was able to eat and drink all the way through treatment although the foods he could handle did become pretty limited. But it was good that he had it, many folks there told us it was a "lifesaver" for them...

Gail