GAG | eating life with head & neck cancer Ep 60 - 120 Yvonne McClaren

I spent a number of years working out how to transition off a PEG Tube feeder back to oral eating. The "transition" itself took me four months. The ongoing roadmap to eating is an entirely different story, yet the lessons I learnt and the theory model I created for myself continue to serve me well in my ongoing pursuit of living not only my best food life but my best life generally.
Currently I am trying to drop a few kilos for a major walk at the end of the year. Nothing crazy just a few kilos that I don't have to carry on the walk with me. That's a whole other strategy based on dysphagia and that salads and raw fruit and vegetable are almost impossible for me. Here is the full programme here.
In this episode I talk about Location Ie where are you on your path) confusion & overwhelm. Aspiration including how I evolved and then ultimately succeeded. Lastly I cover outcome - social eating and relationships now.



This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yvonnemcclaren.substack.com/subscribe

The purpose is to communicate in a logical manner what can be some of the side effects that happen to us as living, breathing human beings during head & neck cancer treatment.
In this episode I'm going to be talking about food confidence erosion.
I'm going to be talking about beyond the tube and I'm going to be talking about visual value models
These value models, what are they all about?
They're a way to visually communicate the value steps and outcomes to be achieved by undertaking the self managed online course. Beyond the Tube - A Roadmap to oral Eating. Let’s Begin ….

Check out the course here


This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yvonnemcclaren.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yvonnemcclaren.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yvonnemcclaren.substack.com/subscribe

The air changes in the lead up to Christmas.
That smell, just before Christmas arrives, Christmas morning, something special in Australia it’s dry heat, the dark dawn brings soft strains of black bird call & magpie warble.
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Perhaps for you it’s burning cold, padded snow & food dread.
Christmas lunch a task to be completed like a dental check up, getting through it and a sigh of relief when it’s all done for another year. That’s the reality for many, it’s not about tension within family units, or who did or said what last year, it’s about the focus of the day, the focus of food and drink and the importance placed on this simple activity that is lost to so many of us.
Christmas lunch with its matching napkins and placed bon bons.
Bowls of snacks for visitors and family you can never mindlessly eat.
Inspecting food to establish what, if anything, you might be able to manage discreetly, without having to gag, spit, or conduct major mouth maintenance.
Thick cut meat off roasted bone, alcohol ladened sauce that hides a burn or coughing fit.
Skin on poultry a choking hazard, flutes of celebratory bubbles that lie flat, dormant not to be raised.
Perhaps a soft roast vegetable swimming in sauce or gravy, maybe fruit pudding drowning in custard.
Touches that make it Christmas like brandy, dried or glace fruit, spice, are lost - sometimes forever.
Chatter, eating, breathing, strains of Christmas carols made hard with incessant Cisplatin ringing.
Breathing simultaneous eating, spontaneity, socialising skills brought to the fore.
Silver dragees our personal game of thrones, those dastardly silver balls, cracked teeth, jaw bone, choking hazard - adorned on cookies, biscuits, cakes and gingerbread houses, a game of Russian roulette for head and neck cancer sufferers.
Nuts, candy, lollies, licorice, spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, bread, rolls, cake, alcohol, icing, ham, pork, chicken, beef, potatoes, pudding, chocolate, coconut - shall I go on?

Christmas.
Then there’s Marjorie’s husband Ray and thousands like him, who feed through a PEG.
Not having to worry about Christmas eating, it’s not happening for them.
Spiced mead, eggnog, cold beer, beading French Champagne, it doesn’t matter.
You can’t taste it through a PEG, is it even Christmas? It’s a solitary life and experience and one that’s very hard to explain, and equally hard to endure.
But endure we do, year after year and the “eating Christmas” becomes an annual chapter in the life after - literally.
We just do our best.
Wherever you are in the world, you might be eating curry, coconut, fish, chicken, turkey, salad, prawns on a barbecue, salami, weber food, cold sandwiches - it doesn’t much matter, if you are lucky, you are sharing that time with family, friends and people who understand your situation.
Head and neck cancer treatment whether we eat orally or not affects everyone, the care givers, the PEG users, friends, strangers, the patients themselves.
It is often a time of dread, a time that simply amplifies the lack of the ability to eat, swallow, to participate in something that is a simple life pleasure.
It never gets easier, it never lets up, it simply becomes another thing to manage in the after math of head and neck cancer treatment.
Christmas, in all it’s celebration and meaning, a large part of it is eating with family, friends and loved ones. Take a moment to reflect on your eating ability and what it means, and for people like Marjorie’s husband, perhaps the Christmas spirit is more about love, about the human spirit, about being kind and knowing that everyone is going through something you know absolutely nothing about.
Perhaps it is less about the food and more about the grievances in the world and our hope for world peace.
Wherever you are reading this, I wish for you

I promise you links within and here they are my lovelies …
Mind Food Body Program
E Guide to living your best food life
Kelly McCormick Podcast




This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yvonnemcclaren.substack.com/subscribe