DH refused the PEG during his treatment and went into relatively severe malnurition by the time it was over. He also had problems swallowing when it was all over, even though he had been swallowing all along (most days it was just ice water!)They had to do a follow up biospy on him due to a hot spot on the PET scan wehich turned out to be caused by the raidaiton continuing to work even 6 weeks post treatment.

Prior to the biospy, DH told the doc it felt like he had an obsruction in his throat. I was taking his Singulair pills (for allergies) and quartering them, and they were still getting stuck. For the record, these pills were about the size of an aspirin, so when I quartered them they were TINY! Anyway, when they did the biospy, they scoped his esophagus and it had collapsed to the point that he only had a narrow opening about the diameter of a straw. The doc said that the scar tissue from the treatment in his larynx had pushed backwards and caused the esophagus to collapse. They dilated him and he hasn't had any problems at all in 16 months... However, the doc warned that it could happen again and if it did, he should tell the doc down here that he neeeds to have it dilated again.

I have also talked to other survivors who have had similar problems. Some of them just require the one time dilation; others require it on a regular basis.