Help for a friend with esophagogastrostomy....

[Guest guest]

Just an open question...met a brave young woman who had lost her

tongue/esophagus following sqamous cell carcinoma of the tongue 5

years ago. She currently eats via a feeding tube to her stomach.

There was an

attempt to create an esophagus for her to swallow with, but the

occurrence of an esophageal fistula has prevented resolution of her

eating ability. (surgeons took skin from both her arms to create this

new throat) Her main issue was with gas in her stomach and the

near impossibility of " burping " . Hence her poor little stomach swells

and she suffers pain.

She is a very active mom to 3 children and a spouse. I have an

ileostomy and understand the problems of post surgical changes in

digestion and so on. All it takes is a superficial review of the

function of chewing and addition of salivary amylase for break

down/digestion of sugars to understand that much is missing in this

frail/skinny lady. As both a chiropractor and nutritionist, mostly

retired, I can work on some suggestions for this most challenging set

of circumstances. My question to this group is multiple:

1. does anyone know other people or a person currently dealing with a

gastrostomy?

 

2. are there specific links to places on the web where more info on

how to nutritionally augment this persons daily diet to avoid or

ameliorate the inevitable results from poor digestion of starches,

and insufficient stimulation of the immune components in the stomach.

 

(by the way, she currently is grinding up what she calls " normal "

foods, having grown tired of ensure and other medically advised

protocols...this is what she puts through her feeding tube directly

into her stomach...consequently she appears to eat way too much in the

bread family!)

Just thought I'd throw this out and hope for some response!

Sincerely...Dr. Karen...two time colorectal cancer survivor with mets

to the lung in remission...yeah!