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‘I love my feeding tube!’
You night have thought of feeding tubes as scary, difficult things, but you could not be be more wrong.
‘I love my feeding tube!’ says Helen, who uses a PEG tube for liquid feed, water and medication. ‘It saved my life and it means my quality of life today
is so much better than it was. One of the things that really frustrates me is when feeding tubes are portrayed as dreadful, as being the end of someone’s life and being restrictive. For me, it’s another aid that makes my life easier. In that sense, it’s just like my wheelchair.’
There are a number of reasons people have tubes. ‘In some cases, it’s a pre-emptive option before undergoing chemotherapy, as people know eating will prove more difficult. It could also be because a stroke has made it hard or impossible to swallow food safely.’
Helen’s PEG tube goes into the stomach through an opening made in the abdomen. She got it about four years ago when she stopped being able to swallow most things. ‘It started with just not being able to swallow tablets and then most foods and certain liquids followed. This meant that by
the time I had the feeding tube fitted, I was unable to sustain a good level of nutrition or hydration, and was unable to take medication.’
