My Ins paid for it for the 1st 2 deliveries but then changed their minds and called if a food supplement. I started mixing Ensure into my oatmeal this morning. What a surprise, It tastes better than milk mixed in. Gives a good shot of calories too. 380 of them.

Typically if liquid feeding is prescribed they MIGHT cover it. Such as Jevity. Non-prescription, OTC, forget it.

Congrats on getting thru week 1. I also didn't mind the mask. The techies also let me bring in my own Cd for the 20 minute treatments.( I chose the soundtrack from Xanadu - "You've got to believe we are magic" and "I'm alive". Two of my favorite inspirationals) Anyway, if she experiences nausea, don't just assume it's always the chemo. I also had the fenytol patch and, bless my sister, she figured out that my vomiting was the patch and not the chemo. I was normal within hours of removing the patch. We replaced it with some heavy duty liquid painkiller via the tube. Had to play around with it to find the right one for me but they are "out there".

Hi everyone, my name is rose and i live in dublin, ireland and have been reading and trying to navigate my way round the site. I should be getting a call any day this week for the second clinic visit verification and a date then to start. 7 weeks of rad and 1 low dose of chemo cispatin per week. its good to be ahead of the game re side effects and i can see that i am in for a wonderful time..........thank you all so much for details. i had thought that i would be up and about as usual during treatment except for the last 2 weeks...

Rose. welcome to our home. Sorry you have to be here, but it is the best place if you need great people that understand what you are going thru.

I've been making my own feeding tube concoctions since the beginning (5 months) All with the help of family and the approval of the hospital nutritionist who reviewed our recipes. For a high dose of protein, I ingest 6 oz. cooked chicken (via the peg)6 oz is 48 grams protein. Chicken breast boiled for 7 hours, liquify in blender adding broth as needed then run thru a sieve. If it goes thru the sieve, it's going thru the peg! I make a big pot to last me a week or more. There are plenty of recipes on the internet for tube feeding but I must confess, my family knows the sites better than I do.

That is awesome! WIsh I had explored that instead of boring old jevity. Must make you feel so much better and give you so much more energy.

Hi Rose!
Ireland is a beautiful place. So sorry you are going through treatments.
Wishing you well.

Kate

I've been searching the internet for tube feedings and found a couple of sites and even just receipes from other various sites and have bookmarked them. They sound really tasty but it's just been a matter of Carol getting into the mindset of blended/pureed food via the PEG. A month ago I got a blender (who knew it wasn't just used for daiquiris! :)) and this past week I got a small crock pot and a strainer. In another post I had said Carol couldn't eat anything orally....well she made a liar out of me for the last two days. She had a craving for mashed potatoes/gravy and blended carrots that she ate orally. It may have only been a part of one meal for each day but she did it. Gotta love her. She said she could taste the carrots! And the potatoes didn't stick to the roof of her mouth. I'm sure that was because of the heavy topping of gravy. Mind you, she just ate a small portion, couldn't do more orally, but did also take a can of ensure w/whey protein that I diluted a little w/water. Her tummy doesn't growl as loud as it use to!

Carol's nausea was because of the chemo but it's under control right now with the compazine. The fentanyl patch @ 75 mcg/h is doing wonders for her right now, compared to a few weeks ago when she was only scripted lortab no matter how loud we got. She wears it all the time and changes it every 3 days (72 hrs) as prescribed and the stronger dosage of morphine she was given helps with the severe ear pain she gets on occasion. It seemed her ear pain was really bad during the 2 days she didn't have radiation (Saturday and Sunday).

the fentynyl patch was a godsend. I could actually function. Chronic pain is dibilitating.