Hi --

Barry started his 6th week of treatment with a little excitement -- we were just purging his PEG (which he hasn't used yet) when it just -- came out! The little balloon at the end had gotten deflated. Oops! Now what? I called the triage nurse and she called our nurse, who called back and said she'd look when we got in for treatment. Apparently several g-tubes (and one j-tube) had failed in last couple of days -- 3 today! -- and Hopkins is sending the whole batch (of unused ones) back to the manufacturer. Nice. Luckily he's not dependent on it for hydration or food.

While we were driving up to Baltimore, the medical and radiation nurses and the nutritionist all conferred and concluded Barry should just leave it out. The rationale being he has a week left, he's not using it, maintaining weight pretty well and it would involve another procedure with 8 hour's fasting and sedation which left him sick for a few days the first time (and he lost 4 pounds) plus he'd miss a day's treatment. He agreed, saying he wouldn't go through that again! So now we just have to watch for any infection and make absolutely sure he drinks and eats enough. Just go to next level of pain-killers if necessary, I guess.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Gail and Barry