Get Your Mama A Feeding Tube [View All]

[dbt]

Mom was left unable to swallow, the work of a hellish series of small, brain-stem strokes. Sis and I discussed the insertion of a feeding tube at great length with Mom's doctors and nurses.

The good news was that it would keep her alive. The bad news was that "most patients who get the tube get about an extra year before complications take them out," according to the veteran nurse.

We hoped for the best, so the feeding tube was chosen. Sis and I just knew that Mom would get All Better, given the proper care. Maybe she'd even be able to talk again! Three times a day, we watched hopefully as a can of a yellow, cheese-like substance was injected down the tube into the stomach.

Sure enough, the feeding tube kept Mom alive--for just about nine months. During those 180 days, the parade of little strokes had enough time to take Mom away, bit by bit by bit. Every time I returned to her bedside, a little more of her was gone. She finally slipped into a coma, just the way she would have done without the tube. Mom got almost an extra year of life, but what in Hell did she get out of that time? Oh yeah, the answer is Hell. Silly me.

POINT: It's real easy to talk about the Life-Saving Aspects Of The Feeding Tube. If you listen to the radio shows, The Tube is a miracle: it's all you need to get on with your life! The reality of The Tube is a long, sad journey that takes your loved one to the same place that She would have gone without The Tube.

And the Government has any business getting involved?