Feeding Tube Out - Not on Purpose!

Not sure why, but little Miss M decided to swiftly remove Liam’s NG (feeding) tube! It came straight out, didn’t even make Liam gag or anything.

For a long while now, Liam has hardly eaten anything by mouth. When he tries something, you can tell it doesn’t taste good, the chemo has affected his taste.

We told Liam, if he eats, he doesn’t need to get another tube right away. For dinner he ate more than he's eaten in a long time, a 1/4 hot dog with ketchup, some sips of milk and a few spoonfuls of cheerios.

Our biggest concern is giving Liam's medicine, there is no fighting the medicine through his NG tube.

We'll see how long we can comfortably hold out. Liam's never been keen on eating, and would go long periods without eating before, so eating issues are not new. But, we also want him to continue recovering and also be in good shape for the high dose chemo.

Questions about Feeding Tube

We get lots of questions about Liam's feeding tube. A while back, Liam got the all clear from the ear, nose and throat doctor, Liam is fully able to swallow and eat food. His left vocal cord wasn't closing all the way, but judging by Liam's voice now, it must be closing more, he still sounds a little "nasally" but he certainly is much louder and is getting less nasally sounding.

Liam was given the all clear to eat, and he was so excited to have chocolate pudding, milk and juice, he ate 5 bowls of cheerios in one sitting! Then he had his first cycle of chemo and that changed. We had the feeding tube out and tested whether Liam would eat, but something about the chemo made him decide he wasn't going to eat or drink. The chemo might him a funny or metallic taste in his mouth, he doesn't tell us, but Liam no longer will eat by mouth now at all.

Anyone who knows him, knows that Liam was never that keen on eating, so it probably didn't take much to turn him off. Besides, now he can sit and play with his cars with 2 hands and have his meal through his feeding tube! 

We are actually thankful for the feeding tube, Liam has gained a little weight in the last month, which is more than he's gained in a long time. The feeding tube does at least give us peace of mind that Liam's getting calories and he's not getting dehydrated. Both are critical while he's going through chemo, so at least that's one area that we don't have to worry about right now.

Unable to swallow food

It's easy for me to post updates when things are well, difficult when things aren't as good - the swallow test revealed that Liam is unable to swallow, we watched on a video X-ray. They are going to just leave him on the feeding tube for a month to heal and try again and hope it resolves.