Hi, Andrew,

I am so grateful that my husband got the feeding tube at the same time as his biopsy (when they got the first results confirming the cancer diagnosis) and got a port as well. He didn't use it until he had to but at no time in his treatment did he suffer from dehydration or lack of calories or have to miss taking meds that helped control all sorts of things such as pain, nausea, and constipation. We used a pump and he could control how quickly the osmolite went in and watch tv, read or rest during that time and not worry about nausea, etc. As a caregiver I absolutely could not have helped my husband maintain calories and hydration during the worst weeks of treatment without the tube. Even if I had literally held a gun to his head there were about 3-4 weeks when he could not have or would not have made himself drink boost. It had nothing to do with him needing to be tougher or more self-reliant but with some extreme treatment effects. I think that Nelie says it very well that there are individual differences in response to treatment and that we don't know in advance how our bodies will react to the treatment. And, people do have different treatments. My husband had induction chemo prior to beginning 7 weeks of combo radition/chemo and I know that extra 8 weeks of treatment and additional chemo (3 types) made his overall treatment more difficult than it would have been had he had the more typical 7 weeks of chemo/radiation. Plus, like Nelie, he developed some swallowing problems.

Andrew- you have mentioned not being sure who can help you as a caregiver. If you do need to hire someone or have others help, the feeding tube may work better than having someone try to make you swallow your boost. My sister-in-law came from CA several times to help and she thought the tube was extremely important in her being able to help.