Alicia did not get a feeding tube today.
They began sedation and the anethesiologist was not comfortable proceeding.
The tumor growth and swelling of the lymph nodes in the throat has progressed to the point of reducing her airway and esophsgus.
So, without a feeding tube, Alicia will need to get calories and nutrition orally. Basically that means choking down Ensure or Boost up to 7 times a day. Which isn't looking very promising as a long term solution.
Tomorrow she will go to an appointment with Dr. Renner in Columbia so that he can assess her tumor growth. He will then make recommendations about how to proceed. The concerns here are multi-faceted. She needs to be able to breathe and the airway is becoming tightened by the pressure from the tumor growth. She needs to be able to either eat, or get a feeding tube in because she is under nourished. She needs to start chemo because chemo will hopefully shrink the tumors which will alleviate some of the other problems. They can't start chemo until the nutrition and weight loss is under control.
I know that sounds like we are chasing our tails. We are!
She won't know Dr. Renner's recommendation until tomorrow evening. I don't anticipate having an update for everyone until Thursday morning.
If you have questions, I will try my best to answer them.
~Sarah