It's been almost 4 years since I got my feeding tube, and I love it. Getting it was pretty unpleasant, I never appreciated before how much you use those muscles until I HURT every time I moved, or breathed, or did anything whatsoever... but I am SO glad now that I did it! I don't remember how long it hurt for, I felt much better after a day or 2, and I think it took a couple weeks for the major pain to subside and at least a month for it to stop aching, especially when I coughed -- BUT I had some internal bruising at the site so it may not be as bad for you. Now it's totally fine, I don't even really notice it unless something catches on it and pulls it, and even that doesn't hurt it just feels kinda weird (any Harry Potter fans out there, I kinda wonder if that's what a Portkey feels like... <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> ).
I was at about 93 pounds when I got it, and at one point a couple years afterwards I was all the way up to 128 pounds! So don't be discouraged if you don't see immediate results, it took a while for it to really make a difference with me and was more of a cumulative effect, but a year after getting it everyone was saying how much healthier I looked. I started out on 4 cans a night and eventually was able to drop down to 3, though I recently started losing weight again so I put it back up to 4. My appetite has been awful for years (which is why I ended up needing the tube in the first place), and I haven't really found that the feeding tube makes much of a difference with that -- I also am rarely hungry for breakfast, and sometimes I'm a little nauseous in the morning, but the overnight feed doesn't really affect my appetite aside from that.
It takes so much stress off me, b/c even when I'm not eating well I know I have the tube to lean on, and my overall health has improved as I gained weight. So, I've very pro-feeding tube, in case you couldn't tell. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Eliana
25 w/ cf
