Mike, Flushing the tube and keeping the area clean where it enters your stomach is really the only maintenance it needs. If you are starting to take food via the tube, you may need to experiment to see what works for you. I always did a simple gravity feed--pouring the liquid food into the syringe, holding the syringe above stomach-level, and letting it go down the tube into my stomach at its own rate, and that worked for me. You can also push it through the syringe with the plunger but that always made me very nauseated--I use the punger to flush water through when flushing, but not for feeding.

Some people find even the gravity feed leaves them nauseated and they have an arrangement with a bag that drips the food into the tube at a slower rate, you can even do this overnight though it mean you have to sleep in a semi-reclining position.

As far as the area where the tube enters your stomach, it is normal, in my experience for there to be a *little* bit of stuff oozing. Some people place gauze over it to soak that up but that got to be really a hassle for me and the tape I used started to irritate my skin, so I just leave it open and let things get a little scabby during the day and clean it off when I shower. if you have lots of ozze, or pain, that could be an infection and you should see someone. But even when it's not infected, it is basically an open wound and will ooze just a little.

In terms of foods, when I could still eat during radaition, ebefore the mucostitis got bad in the fourth week, I had a lot of soups and yogurt in the soup for some protein. I ahd some mac and cheese and I drank a lot of gingerale for a week or two, because it helped calm my stomach, but it started to irritate my mouth eventually. When I got to tube-feeding, I eventually got a prescription for Jevity, which has fiber in it and some other stuff that over the counter liquid foods, like Ensure or Boost, do not have. But you can also do ensure or boost (my insurance paid for the jevity--it is more expensive).

As much as you can, keep trying to swallow something everyday so your swallowing muscles do not get rusty. there are also exercises you can do to keep your swallowing muscles working duiring radiation. if you have not already, see a speech pathologist about this.

Good luck with it all and keep coming here with questions or just to vent when you need to.

Nelie