Feeding tubes

[Cammy]

My mom is coming home from hospital tomorrow. Without expounding on all the details, the bottom line is that she is unable to swallow properly and fully leading to her often getting some of her food in her lungs. It seems to happen about once a year that I have to send her to hospital for aspiration pneumonia.

This year I asked about the possibility of placing a feeding tube in her, hoping that by by-passing her throat it would help this problem. The barium swallow shows her swallowing is much worse than two years ago. However, the doctor said that studies show that feeding tubes are of such minimal advantage that she wouldn't recommend this procedure.

My question is, does anyone here have any knowledge or experience with feeding tubes, and what type of patient had the tube placed? I know that many cystic fibrosis sufferers have them and others who can't swallow normally. I'm just curious what your experiences of these tubes have been? Obviously they aren't as straight forward as I imagined, or they'd recommend one for my mom. So, if any of you have any info, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks in advance.