Hi Carol,

Not a gal, but here's my experience.

I'm 5'8", was about 175 or so before treatment, looking a little porky, 36"waist After first surgery/rad, down to 145, 34"waist. Had a hard time the last couple of weeks of rad, burns to tongue kept me from eating almost anything, even Ensure was extremely painfull. No PEG tube.

Second time surgery/Rad/Chemo started at 145, went down to about 132. 32"waist. That was end of May 2003.

Now back up to I think about 140-145, 33 inch waist. (Not sure weight, scale broke and I dont' really bother checking all that much). Ensure isn't sold here where I live, packed it in from HK for the first 3 months or so. Otherwise, weight gain was from ice cream, the odd bottle of Guiness (doc's orders, I have it in writing) and snacking. Diet otherwise now is rice or noodles, veggies, some meat or fish. Last big weight gain was during a 2 week trip to Australia, seems the diet there is fish and chips, burgers and chips, bar-b-qued chicken and chips, at least the area I was in.

I don't plan on getting any heavier at this point, 145 looks good on me. Need to build muscle mass in upper body, but from chest down in good shape.

Do a search, there's some recipie's for good high calorie shakes on the board.

Bob