Michael, I was under the impression that for most PEGs, you could use either bags or a syringe, depending on the set-up you want. That's the way mine works anyway. The tube has two openings at the end, one that would accomodate a bag set-up and one that accomodates the syringe.

Please don't assume I think doctors are Gods or that their opinions are always right simply because I said I'd trust my gastroenterologists more conservative recommendation about the swimming. All I said was I'd prefer to go with a conservative opinion on that given what might happen if I ignored it, especially when it appears to be based on a couple of actual stories of swimming mishaps with people with PEG tubes. Beieve me, if you'd been around here when I was trying to decide what treatment I needed after surgery you'd be aware that I *hardly* accepted doctors opinions without a question (thnak goodness) nor do I recommend anyone else do that.

Minnie, I hear you about wanting to be sure the non-chemo folks don't get spooked. Since the big studies on the effectiveness of that just came out a little over a year ago, I'd imagine that many people who were treated before then were not even offered the option of concurrent chemo, unless they were part of the clinical trial. In another couple of years it could be some other new treatment that few of us now are being offered such as Erbitux. I think in these cases it *is* very helpful to rememeber that you can't know for sure if you would have even been in the percentage of folks who benefitted from the treatment.

But in terms of the bigger picture, thank goodness there ARE these new and hopeful pieces of research coming out about treatments that clearly increase overall survival. Let's hope there are lots more in the future for all the future people that will be in our shoes, right?