David,

I am not sure you were totally serious about yanking the PEG tube??

Just a thought that not everyone has the same pain threshold and can push thru the pain and swallow enough to maintain proper calories. Bill has a high pain threshold (believe me, he has endured very painful things, but he was ever so grateful to have the PEG when pain was at its worst. He was able to wean off of it when the pain got better and was eating exclusively by mouth at three weeks post treatment. He was also encouraged by Moffitt to keep the PEG until his first scans were OK...just in case.

As you can tell, I am a big advocate of continuing some type of swallowing during and after treatment but I am also an advocate of the PEG remaining until it definitely isn't needed any more.

Deb