Max,

My husband make it through without a PEG, it was not easy. He has lost around 50 pounds, fortunately he had the weight to spare.

It was difficult for him to eat from mid rads tx on since food tasted lousy (almost nothing tasted good) and his throat hurt but he was able to tolerate cream of wheat and ScandiShakes. Like Gary mentioned above, we bought ours through ebay and since there has only been one person selling it that I have seen, it must be the same seller. She has a great price on them and is a pleasure to deal with.

Hydration is very important and until toward the end of rads tx he was drinking about 2-3 liters of water a day. At the end he was taking in almost nothing because it hurt. One of the rads docs recommended that he switch over to Gatorade or the like because it is not as hard on the throat as water can be due to the minerals in the water.

Gordon did well with the Gatorade for about 10 days but then the flavors started irritating his throat. It was then recommended that he drink chicken broth. I think it has something to do with getting sodium to the heart??

Finally, it just got to a point where he was getting hydrated at the infusion center which was not a bad idea because they always added Decadron which helped with the post-treatment throat burning that we were warned about.

Anyway, he is now 2 weeks post treatment and his throat has improved enough that he is taking fluids easier these days. There is hope, it does get better. It takes some time but it does get better.

Remember, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Stay strong, Norma