Just finished my 5th week of radiation and anything that touches my right tonsil sends me into agony. I guess thats why we get pegged. Well I was determined to eat having only a bowl of soup yesterday. I typically like mushy cereal in the morning. So into the blender goes some frosted flakes, rasin brand, cantouloupe, milk, and a bananna. Blend as I might I could not get this stuff to the real liquid stage. More like runny oatmeal. Into the syringe it goes and its difficult to press the plunger. Off come the syringe from the tube and this stuff is all over me. Back in the blender and this time a little apple juice. Back in the syringe and manged to get it all down. I guess theres a learning curve to everything.

were you putting the food in the peg? During my husband's treatment we only used osmolite and water and coca cola to clean it but I can't tell you how many times we had "explosions" of some sort from back-ups etc. Just 2 more weeks of treatment for you - they'll be tough as will a couple of weeks afterward but you're past the halfway mark!

Sophie

Are you trying to add food to the canned prescription nutrients your doctors should have given you with your PEG. I have a very convenient home delivered of Jevity with replacement bags and y-extenders and syringes. My understanding is that regular blenders don't quite do the trick for tiny PEGs (14FR) like mine. If I don't learn to swallow by Christmas and eat again, I am getting a bigger PEG (24FR) put in and will buy a Vita-Mix so I can add regular food also.
The syringe method works great for Wine, not so great for Beer (lots of foaming), not at all for soup, so-so for iced tea and coffee (lots of spurt leaks)and bearable for bolus feedings of Jevity when we eat out and I don't want to take my feeding pole and bag into the restaurant.
Right now, hard to justify any "food" except the free Jevity as I can't taste it anyway.

I was solely using the syringe and plunger and household food from the blender. I don't have any commercial stuff yet. Do you folks use a pump or gravity bag or just sit there as I do and fill the syringe and pump it through. I also have a question about soups out of the can. Is there any point to heating them up first?

Rick

They sent me home from the hospital with a gravity bag feeder that I hung on a nail in the kitchen. The next week they delivered a six foot collapsible pole with 30 bags, 6 syringes, and 4 extender tubes along with six cases of Jevity 1.2 I had to complain and get them to send Jevity 1.5 for the extra calories in the can. But insurance covered it all since after the surgery I could not eat nor swallow (still can not).
Now I get deliveries each month.
The first time around I did not use a PEG after the radiation or chemo despite the pain and just forced down cans of Ensure and towards the end, VHC. We had to buy them and even now insurance will not pay for them as they are "palatable" and available without prescription unlike the Jevity 1.5
The syringe method is something I reserve when we are out or travelling and even them I try to restrict it to once a day as otherwise the rapid infusion really upsets my stomach. Lots of posters here mention using a pump for even slower feeds, but the gravity has worked fine for me.
Soups are just too thick for my narrow PEG.
Just be sure you get enough calories (2000 minimum) and water so you keep up your weight and hydration in order to bolster recovery. good luck
charm

Rick,
I ended up just using the BIG syringe. It depends if you can tolerate taking 200-300 ml or so in a short time. Initially, I also used the blender later on Jevity and Benecal as a calorie boost.
I ended up getting my PEG clogged several times with blended half raw vegetables... you might want to make sure the stuff is fine enough.

Re soups: I would not take them cold, also at least warm them up and make sure they are ok.

M

Rick we use the pump overnight to get 4 can's of 2 cal into Steve while he's sleeping. Through the day we sometimes use the pump for another 2 cans if we aren't going anywhere. Otherwise Steve uses the syringe. When he does this he gets fed up with waiting for gravity to do it's thing so gives it a bit of help by pushing the syringe in to get things moving faster. Suprisingly this hasn't caused him any nausea. Good luck with your Peg. Remember it's a lifeline and a godsend.