Anne,
I too wish you both the best. It's an overwelming thing, but you can make it through. I didn't have chemo, however I did have 17 hours worth of surgery to remove, then rebuild my lower left jaw with fibula, titanium and a tissue transplant from my forearm. 8 weeks later I followed up with 30 treatments of radiation.

I avoided a feeding tube, but it's tough. You have to adopt a different approach to food...you don't eat for pleasure, you eat to live. High calorie liquid diets become the norm, and for me I just viewed them as another medication I took 4 times a day.

There are a number of different brands of nutrition drinks available. I know the Carnation VHC has been mentioned repeatedly, but what works for some won't for others.

I know when I started my journey, I quickly found out that most of the varieties other people recommended I couldn't tolerate for one reason or another. I finally found my solution in Resource 2.0, also in the 500+ calorie range. Try several different types first, a can or two at a time instead of investing in case lots untried.

That way, you won't find yourself in the same boat as a lot of us, with cases of drinks sitting around that we can't stand. That got expensive, really quickly.

One other thing that hasn't been mentioned is fluids intake. Even though your husband may wind up drinking his nutrition completely, you can't minimize the importance of adequate hydration.

Even with a water bottle in my hand constantly, I still wound up in hospital on fluid replacement I.V. for a couple of days. Dehydration is a more immediate danger than lack of nutrition. You can get by without food for much longer than without water, and it's incredibly easy to get dehydrated while in treatment. LOTS of water, every day is crucial.

Let us know how things progress for you both. They will progress too, even though some days won't seem like it.

Good luck
Wayne