CancerCompass message board discussion started by jeanned on 1/31/2008 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,20523,0.htm Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ hi, i am new to the message board. my dad is currently undergoing chemo for throat cancer. he's 63, did radiation and a fairly new procedure called cyberknife. he had a feeding tube put in about a year ago. this last month has been very tough. he lost 10 pounds in one month. he's been using ensure and baby food, but apparently it's not enough for him. he can only swallow small amounts of water. any advise or suggestions are greatly appreciated! jeanned Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT My thoughts are with you during this very frightening time.  Your father probably needs to go on a higher calorie formula to prevent losing any more weight. I use TwoCal by Ross, and I also use a feeding pump at night, which is covered by my insurance, luckily.  That really turned my life around, as I was unable to tolerate Ensure and had to consume so much Boost to make up the calories that it made me sick and I could not maintain, much less, gain any weight. It's expensive, but worth it, as it contains 475 calories per 8 oz. I have also heard of Carnation VHC, which has even more calories, but I have no experience with that.I have recently started taking SupliMed for one "meal" a day. It is a fine powder that you can mix with water or whole milk. I mix it with Silk Soy Milk for a total of 608 calories per serving. It's pretty expensive and you can only buy it directly from the company online, but to me it is worth it, as I got down to 99 pounds at my worst and I'm 5 feet 5 inches. I'm desperate not to lose any more weight and would like to gain a few more pounds. (I'm about 105 currently) Since I just got started on it, I can't tell you about the long term effects on weight gain, but I am excited about the product because it doesn't clog my tube (I have a small button-type tube) and it has no bad digestive effects. It's not any kind of pyramid scheme/snake oil type thing, so far as I can tell.Here is the website: http://www.suplimednutrients.com/about.php I also take the supplement Juven, which was recommended to me by my doctor. I buy that off of ebay rather than from the manufacturer, to save a little money. It's supposed to prevent losing muscle and again, I have been pleased by it. It's very frustrating to be on a feeding tube when there is so little information out there, especially when you live in a smaller town, as I do, since the doctors really don't know what to do with me.  I have been on one for two years from bad radiation side effects (thyroid cancer which spread to my lymph nodes), and there have been times I want to tear my hair out in despair. I would also recommend going to the website www.oley.org, which is for people with digestive/swallowing problems. It helped me find a GI, who replaces my feeding tube periodically and got me a much better tube for me (button tube with extension set).Please feel free to PM me if necessary. Gagirl Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT