Home enteral feeding: III. A patient's perspective

I became an enterally fed patient in April 1994 following an operation to r emove a malignant tumour near the base of my oesophagus. Unfortunately, alt hough neither the medics nor I were aware at the time, a fissure appeared a t the top of my oesophagus thus allowing food to pass into my lungs. After 5 weeks in Intensive Care and a further 4 months in hospital I came home, f eeding for 20 hours a day and determined to live as near normal a life as p ossible. At that time enteral feeding was new to my district nurses so I ex perimented with rates of flow and decided on my own time for feeding, allow ing me 10 hours off feeding a day. By attending coffee mornings and other e vents I was able to convince my friends and neighbours that I was able to a ttend all the usual social functions whether they involved food and drink o r not! Apart from my closest friends and family the majority of people in t he village have forgotten that I cannot eat or drink and treat me as a norm ally functioning human being. I believe that patients receiving home tube f eeding can live an almost normal life with help where needed, e.g. heavy cl eaning and gardening. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.