PEG installed

7th May 2025

You do feel tired and there is some discomfort from the procedure, with the main problem being able to get up and down from the bed or a chair, this does start to ease a bit but by time I am going home today there is still quite some pain just below my rib cage - to be expected I guess from the fact they have shoved something through your abdomen and that the organs, especially your colon and liver are disrupted and no doubt bruised. in fact the discomfort feels like a bad bruise.

I have more checks and discussions on how to flush the tube and what I need to do post 10-days where you have to push it into your stomach, give it a good twist so that the stomach lining doesn't regrow over it, this will then have to be done daily, so another daily procedure to add to the list of things to do!

Carol pick's me up and we head off home to really get ready for the following day meeting with Prof. Winter, neither of us are sure what to expect. Surprisingly, I do have a fairly good nights sleep, but still in some discomfort when I wake up during the night.

6th May 2025

You may ask what is a PEG - it's a Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy tube? basically its tube that is inserted into your stomach so you can feed post-op where you may not be able to eat or swallow properly but also to allow your throat or in my case my tongue to heal properly.

Turn up at the Endoscopy department at the John Radcliffe in Oxford, a very full waiting room, but everyone is seen fairly quickly, so I meet the endoscopist that will perform the procedure, and as usual with hospitals these days they talk you through all the risks, which always includes a percentage for death, I am used to hearing his now but you know you have to have this done for the next stage so what are you going to say, eh no, I don't like the idea of that - of course not

Anyway, sign the consent form and straight into the treatment room. The give you a great sedative that completely knocked me out, was the best way to be honest, they shove a camera down into your stomach, they do check down through your throat and everything on the way down and of course into your stomach.

They then make an incision through your abdomen and into your stomach to pull the tube through. 

I come round feel a bit sore and after a couple of hours they transfer me back to the Churchill H&N ward for an overnighter. I haven't had anything to eat since 8pm the night before so I am starving, but can't eat or drink for another couple of hours.

Finally, I get to eat, probably not the best thing but I chose the Chicken Tikka Masala - microwaved 😝 was definitely not the best thing to eat but it did help my hunger! drunk loads of water 

Throughout the day, various checks and how to "flush" the PEG, I do sleep quite well that night, even though the hospital is really cold as they have turned the heating off due the "hot" weather the week before - not really hot or even warm this week 😝