Ernie decided to follow the standard protocol and get the feeding tube. The doctors kindly agreed to wait until after we return from our trip to Minnesota next week to do the surgery.
Even though the staff wants you to have the tube, they actually discourage you from using it. If you keep swallowing during radiation, you are less likely to lose any long-term swallowing function. The tube is there to supplement your nutrition if you start to lose too much weight. Maintaining normal weight is necessary not only to remain healthy, but also to insure that the size of your neck doesn't change dramatically after they make the mask and line up the radiation beams.
If you don't use the tube, they remove it a week or two after radiation. If you do use it--and we gather most people do to some extent--then they wait a week or two after the last use to remove it. Seems like the procedures will never end but, given our success rate so far, we are not complaining.
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