Hi, my husband is in week 3 of his treatment and having great difficulty eating, we put Ensure through his tube slowly but he brought it up again. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to what we could try fir him to eat please? Thank you

Hi Homerv1 Welcome to our small community sorry to have to welcome you to a club none of us want to join. I can’t offer any solid advise if it’s a peg  as I was fed by n g tube from week 4 onwards. You can try diluting the ensures with water as an emergency until tomorrow when you are back at hospital. I know a lady whose just finished treatment she asked for a pump andc ready made food as she was having similar problems 

Has he pegv or an n g tube through his nose ? You can have a pump For either . I know many overnight feed with the pump I personally preferred day time feeding but it’s personal choice. 
what cancer has you husband? It will help us to answer any more questions. You can click your profile or just pop on post. 
Good  luck the next weeks unfortunately won’t be any better but you need his food and hydration sorting. Please ask the team tomorrow.
Hazel 

Hi Homer. Welcome to the community. Sorry your husband is having trouble. I was plagued by nausea during treatment so I know how he feels. 

Is he having  chemotherapy as well? 

Try diluting the Ensure 50/50 with warm water. 
Is your husband taking morphine? If he is are you making sure he has enough laxative? 
Does he have some anti nausea medication?  I had metoclopramide which helped a little but there are better drugs. He can ask his RT team tomorrow. 
Is he hydrated enough? 2 or 3 litres of water a day is good but sometimes difficult to achieve. It helps with the thick mucous which can make him feel sick. 
These are a few pointers to explore. 
Others will surely come up with more. 

Best of luck and keep in touch 

PS

If you have time you could put your husbands details in your profile. It helps others to know what’s going on when they answer questions and it would save you repeating things. Only if you feel you can. No pressure 

Hiya

I cant specifically speak about the tube, but i can speak about nausea.. i had it briefly but religious taking of anti nausea meds- wether i felt nauseous or not stopped it in its tracks

I had 3 different anti nausea meds - a tablet before chemo, dexamethasone during treatment and the next day, and a third if i had any breakthrough nausea (im afraid aside from the dexamethasone i cant remember the names sorry)

It might be worth reviewing the anti nausea meds- or at least taking them proactively rather than reactively

Trev

Thank you. Did you find difficulty with eating?

God yes, it affects everyone differently but i had problems eating from the end of week four onwards. I turned a big corner about 12 weeks after treatment finished.

My husband was put on pump yesterday as he is bringing everything up. I have been told to give him snacks as well but all he says is he doesn’t like the texture. Did you have to go onto the pump with Ensure?

No he is just having radiotherapy . I really don’t have a nurse that I can actually talk to only the dietician and she’s not interested in how I’m feeling about all this having lost my 25 year old daughter to Cervical Cancer I am finding this so difficult . I have never been on a site like this, it is all new to me. 

My husband is having his first night feed tonight. If his feed finishes at 6 am does the tube have to be flushed straight away or can it be left until 7 when I get up. 

Chill you can leave it.