4 stage PEG transition to successful eating post HNC treatment.
As we draw closer to Christmas Day and the “food and drink” holidays as I like to call them, the importance of why I wrote Easy Follow Easy Swallow comes to mind.
This is a blatant plug but with a purpose. I want you to live your BEST life too! It outlines the 4 stage PEG transition to successful eating post HNC treatment or put more simply “how to get off your PEG” .
November 2018 I was just out of surgery for Oropharyngeal Cancer (Tonsil Cancer) which involved 1/3rd of my tongue being removed, both tonsils and 30 lymph nodes.
Christmas was looking bleak – little did I know the following Christmas of 2019 wasn’t’ going to be much better.
The early part of 2019 I underwent 30 chemoradiotherapy sessions.
I had a PEG tube feeder inserted and that kept me alive for the next 15 months.
I now know I was in shock for about a year. Literally I was in denial, slowly I accepted the reality in which I found myself. Yet I hear time and time again that people from all around the world going through this have trouble with working out what to eat, how to eat, meal plan and when to start.
Easy Follow Easy Swallow shares my journey, shares how I went about taking charge of my life and body and what I did to achieve that. The 4 stage PEG transition process.
I don’t have food allergies, but I know many of you do. I write about how to manipulate food, protein powder, fruit, vegetables and grains. Ensuring you get all the nutrients you need without relying on commercial formula for as long as I did.
As a real food advocate I am testament to the affect of real food following treatment. How important it is to transition back to oral eating. Using real food in a PEG tube if at all humanly possible.
How I transitioned using Easy Follow Easy Swallow
and the Mind Food Body Program
Easy swallow zucchini spiral vegetable pasta
PEG tubes get a bad rap and for good and bad reasons.
If, like me you are not able to manage to swallow anything then they are literally a life saver. What’s not taught, encouraged, managed well is the teaching, motivating and use of real food to transition, how to transition and how to ensure you are creating a bespoke diet for your special circumstances.
Dietitians and SLP will do what they do best, but unless you have been through this it’s difficult to understand and appreciate the nuances that come with it. I find that the treatment process is very disease focused and not patient focused.
How to stay connected to food, how to manipulate food to suit your needs and how to transition back to oral eating is why I wrote this book.
It’s what I did when I couldn’t do anything. I wrote down all I knew as a foodie, an event manager and teacher. You can purchase your copy here and you can continue your food journey with me by becoming a member of The Food Manifesto and or join the Food Mind Body Program.
Live your BEST food life!
Stay healthy… see you in the new year.
Yvonne
