The Feeding Tube

The life of the Feeding Tube

I am going to try to do my part to make the life of using the feeding tube for most if not all of my diet is in my hands and I need to start now to end that facture. The only reason for not eating a soft food diet right now is the soreness of my throat caused by the radiation therapy. Slowly that pain is going away I was told that it would last from 8 to 10 days.

So here is my plan. I will take and during that time period I will try a few bits of “real” food each day. By doing this I will keep my throat muscles strong and keep my stomach use to digesting good ole fashion food. After the worst of my sore throat is over I will need to build up what my stomach can handle due to the length of time that I was unable to eat. I was not eating a “normal” diet for well over a month. So I will need at least that amount of time to get back to that.

Before I was discharged from this last hospital stay I was given a book about diet during and after cancer treatment. Now please try to understand that I have a live in cook. All of my life my Mom has never let go of the control of her kitchen and that has not changed even though she has broken her hip and is in her late 80’s. Go Mom Go.

When I got home from the hospital my COOK took the cookbook and she is reading all of it. She backs me trying to keep using my throat and stomach, but she guides me every time I go near the kitchen.

I know that the doctors are concerned about my weight and therefore my calorie in tack. But until I can eat three meals a day in my book they are just plain out of luck. Keeping the food in me is my primary concern.

My primary VNA nurse, Katie called me this morning to check on my pain medication amount. After getting some information and doing some sort of math problem she calculated that I have enough medication for over 100 hours. This is great news. Katie or someone she works with will call me tomorrow and do the same thing. If I do NOT have enough to get me through until Katie comes on Tuesday than someone will come out and change the cartridge of medication in my pump. Katie also told me what I call my panic number. When I look at the machine and it gets to this number than I need to call the VNA right away because I am running to low of the medication. It is great to know this number. Now about three times a day, about meals and bedtime, I can check the machine and know how I am doing. In the meantime I can go about my day doing other things and not worrying about my medical care.

Today my “rigged” following of a schedule fell apart. We had company I lost track of time and didn’t give myself the 2 pm feeding until 4:30 pm. (Oh, horrors, the world will come to an END!!!!! HA, ha, ha) Oh well that is life and I am living it. I am certain that I will be just fine.