You wouldn’t believe it if I told you

But I’m going to try anyway.

Last Monday, I started feeling really flushed and bloated after all of my tube feedings. On Tuesday (chemo day), I cut back on my morning feeding. As soon as I got the feeding through the tube, I began vomiting.

So I called the surgeon to see if he could take a look at it. He told me to come to his office in between radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

After I finished radiation, I wet over to the surgeon’s office. He took a look at my tube site and said the tube was in the right place, so he didn’t think it was a problem with the tube. He thought I should see a gastroenterologist, so he called my oncologist to make that recommendation.

The oncologist agreed and set me up with a gastroentrologist in the same building. When I got to his office, I was feeling pretty weak. so I asked if I could lie down while I waited for the doctor. When he came into the office, I sat up and he began to ask questions. All of a sudden, I felt like I was going to throw up again so I told him so. He handed me a basin and I started up again. The poor doctor eventually gave up and went to get the nurse to take care of me until I was able to talk to him.

We finally got the vomiting under control so the doctor could come back in and ask his questions. He said he thought my stomach had shrunk because I’d had so much trouble eating, so he wanted me to cut my feedings back to half a can three times a day until I felt like I could add more. He also sent me for an abdominal x-ray.

After my x-ray, I went back to the oncologists’s office. He asked what days I normally had chemo. I told him Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He said, “Next week?” I said, “No. Today.” So he sent me home and told me to come back Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday instead. I went home and slept all day.

On Wednesday morning, I still felt sick after my tube feeding, but didn’t actually throw up. Going to chemo while already feeling nauseated is not pleasant, but I managed to survive all three treatments plus radiation therapy.

By Friday, I still wasn’t feeling any better after my tube feedings so I called the gastroenterlogist’s office to move my follow-up appointment to Monday. During my dinner feeding, I began to realize there’s a good chance I’m aspirating again (some fluid going into my lungs instead of my stomach). I don’t know what they’ll be able to do about that. It will probably be at least four more weeks before I’m able to eat solid food again, so I have to have some way to take in some calories.

And of course, now it’s the weekend, so I’m not sure what to do between now and Monday. I have a home health care nurse coming on Saturday, but she’s not very good, so I don’t have much hope she’ll have any answers.