recipes

oregon
oregon Member Posts: 8
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
My husband has been released to a soft food diet after his esophagas has been completly removed due to cancer . I am having a hard time finding receipes with lots of calories to get him to gain weight. I would appreciate any help you could offer.

Thank you

Comments

  • Tina Blondek
    Tina Blondek Member Posts: 1,500 Member
    #2
    nutrition
    Hi Oregon
    I was a caregiver for my dad who recently passed away from ec in March. You and your husband are fortunate that he could have the surgery. My dad could not due to the placement of the tumor, and the fact that he had open heart surgery in the past. Let me think back to when we had to find out about a good diet plan. I would suggest a lot of protein. Baby foods. Meat that has been blended or pureed. Eggs.
    Stay away from a lot of dairy though, it tends to cause some digestive problems. Eat small amounts of food throughout the day. 6 small meals instead of 3 large ones. Protein shakes. Milk shakes. This is all I can think of right now, but I know there are people on here who will respond with more ideas. Good luck! Wish I had to gain weight!! Peace to you both.
    Tina
  • paul61
    paul61 Member Posts: 1,392 Member
    #3
    Web Site with Recipe Ideas
    Hello Oregon and Welcome!!!

    Here is a web site that contains a wealth of good information about EC and you will find recipe suggestions for various foods and some great ideas for high calorie shakes. I would suggest you watch out for dairy and have you husband consume high calorie drinks slowly at first to see how his altered digestive system responds.

    Here is the web site address:

    http://www.eccafe.org/index.html

    Click on "contents" then click on "Eating to Win"

    I would also recommend the following document from UPMC "Diet after Esophagectomy":

    http://www.upmc.com/HealthAtoZ/patienteducation/Documents/Esophagectomy.pdf

    And also "Dumping Syndrome Diet"

    http://www.upmc.com/HealthAtoZ/patienteducation/Documents/DumpingSynDiet.pdf


    Hope this helps.

    Best Regards,

    Paul Adams
    AKA: "paul61"
    McCormick, South Carolina
  • oregon
    oregon Member Posts: 8
    #4
    Tina Blondek said:

    nutrition
    Hi Oregon
    I was a caregiver for my dad who recently passed away from ec in March. You and your husband are fortunate that he could have the surgery. My dad could not due to the placement of the tumor, and the fact that he had open heart surgery in the past. Let me think back to when we had to find out about a good diet plan. I would suggest a lot of protein. Baby foods. Meat that has been blended or pureed. Eggs.
    Stay away from a lot of dairy though, it tends to cause some digestive problems. Eat small amounts of food throughout the day. 6 small meals instead of 3 large ones. Protein shakes. Milk shakes. This is all I can think of right now, but I know there are people on here who will respond with more ideas. Good luck! Wish I had to gain weight!! Peace to you both.
    Tina

    Thank you nutrition and
    Thank you nutrition and paul61 for your help, I am sorry to hear about your dad.



    My husband (51)was diagnosed in January with Stage 3 EC, he went through 6 weeks of chemo ( one that was pumped into him from a IV every 10 minutes) 33 radiation treatments at the same time, and then surgery on April 19th.
    His surgery took 12 hours, they removed his esophagus completely and hooked his stomach to his throat. 1 1/2 days later he went into respirator failure, he was in ICU and in a medicated coma for 7 days and then slowly came out of it. He has been home and on a feeding tube at night, he started to eat soft foods and for about a week was able to do this, now the doctor said his throat is closing up and will be going in on June 7th to have them expand his throat in hopes that it does not disconnect what they have done.

    He watched his best friend battle cancer in his head for 4 years before passing away 9 months before he was diagnosed, one of the things that we looked at before starting the treatments and doing the surgery in quality of life, maybe it is too early to tell and I try to think positive most of the time, but being in pain and seeing doctors all the time is not the life he wanted, he was a very active person and now he has no energy and basically sits in his chair all day.
    Is this normal and will it get better?

    Thank you,
    Oregon

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