3. Tubing

My PEG tube (aka feeding tube) installation was successful. I'm spending the night in the hospital because the doc wants to make sure it doesn't get infected. It feels kind of like I got punched in the gut. And in fact, I guess that's literally what happened, but it's more like getting hole punched. They put a fiber optic light down my throat into my stomach. The light shines through the outside of the skin and shows them where to punch the hole. Then they run a string down my throat and out the hole, which then pulls a tube with a grommet at the end down and through. The grommet keeps it from coming out. They put another grommet on the outside to anchor it in place and there you have it: direct access. Of course, I was sleeping throughout, but I think this is more or less the procedure. But let me tell you, as yucky and invasive as it may sound, waking up afterwards was nothing compared to awakening after getting the biopsy of my tongue cancer. That was horrible. I was choking, gray and out-of-it. I went back to sleep. Then awoke again with a burning throat. Took some time to return to normalcy. The feeding tube aches and it's a little hard to sit up and walk but I can tell it will be ok in a day or so. A little inconvenient, but nbd. And a couple percocets didn't hurt. A very nice nurse demonstrated the procedure for using the tube. It is a little gross. I'll spare you those details for when I actually start using it, if in fact I do. There is a chance that I may never need to use it at all, if I can continue swallowing throughout the whole procedure. But judging from other case studies, that's pretty unlikely.