Eileen,

Since you started this war, I'll continue...LOL

I can only speak to the nose tube and Jean you said he has already finished Tx so he is/was just like me in that respect.

The nose tube took the doc about 1 min to insert it in my nose and while I swallowed water, down my throat. While not something I got a kick out of, there was zero pain or discomfort. They then taped to my nose to prevent it from coming out and sent me to be X rayed. The reason for the X ray is that they leave the metal strip in the tube that helps give it rigidity so they can glide it into your stomach so they can X ray your stomach and make sure the tube is positioned correctly. After they saw it was in place they just pulled the mteal strip out.

Now I did wake up the first night in a very wet bed as I had forgotten their cautions and I had gotten my arm tangled in the tube somehow and had pulled it out and my food was just pouring on the bed so they had to put another one in and X ray me again. Having it done twice in 10 hours was not thrilling but at least I knew what to expect the second time around. After that I was careful to avoid pulling on it as it does come out without discomfort so you just don't notice it inching out. I also pinned it to my shirt to make it more difficult to tug on.

The reason I said it was difficult to shower with is that your tape will get wet or damp and you should retape after showering and I just didn't want to spend that much time everytime I took a shower BUT it felt sooooooooo good to have hot water pounding on me so I put up with that inconvenience.

It was very easy to put water and meds and liquid food in the tube and it got it past my throat which was a good thing. I was still able to eat with it in and as far as Brian's war like comment about not wanting to go to the mall with that thing hanging out of his nose....believe me the last thing I wanted to do 2 weeks post Tx was to go ANYWHERE so that never crossed my mind.

As I said I only had it in a week and I felt like it had gotten me over my nausea hump and I was able to eat foods again without tossing my cookies so I called my doc one am and he let me pull it out myself and the rest is history.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Either way the purpose is the same and that is to get him needed hydration, food and meds so his healing can begin.