Vern, the cement was a function of the morphine and probably how the food got in there (oral, PEG or NG tube was moot). In fact, ingesting solid food might have been worse because it isn't a liquid to begin with.

BTW, anyone experiencing difficulties should also try changing the stuf going down the tube (throat or PEG) as some stuf may do better than others for different folks -- That was the first thing the food supply dietitian recommended when I was having the sweats, nausea and runs at first (I was ahead of her, having tried the semi-drinkable stuf, the Safeway stuf and good ol' VHC).

In the event, the problem turned out to be that for some reason I just couldn't take even the moderate feeding rates, which is why I acquired my trusty Kangaroo pump and set it to crawl, not hop -- Dunno why that was, but if I was taking it a hair too fast, a light case of facial sweats would alert me and I would dial it back some. Wasn't a problem on my first PEG, so I dunno why it was on the second PEG.


Age 67 1/2
Ventral Tongue SCC T2N0M0G1 10/05
Anterior Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 6/08
Base of Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 12/08
Three partial glossectomy (10/05,11/05,6/08), PEG, 37 XRT 66.6 Gy 1/06
Neck dissection, trach, PEG & forearm free flap (6/08)
Total glossectomy, trach, PEG & thigh free flap (12/08)
On August 21, 2010 at 9:20 am, Pete went off to play with the ratties in the sky.