Come Fly w Me and My Feeding Tube

The following posts will deal with travel advice for tube feeders for both domestic and overseas flights. The posts were prompted by a reader who asked this question: can my friend fly to Italy after having a feeding tube inserted. And can she go just two to three weeks after surgery? Her doctors say if she’s going to Italy she must do it now …or never. Can she do it? What are some of the problems involved?
I didn’t want to answer this because my answer would be a dream smasher. Besides, if her doctors aren’t concerned, should I be?
Doctors don’t educate you carefully on the how to’s of tube feeding, not because they’re busy or don’t care. But because they haven’t experienced the challenges. But, in the last two years, I have learned some tricks that make traveling with a tube much easier.
Are these tricks enough to insure a successful overseas trip? I’ll let you decide as you read my tips.
First, the privacy demands of tube feeding limit how long you can fly. Tube feeding necessitates lifting your shirt or unbuttoning your blouse to plug in the tube. Once connected, you can drop the shirt and discretely feed yourself. However, a passerby can easily see the tube dangling from under your shirt. They also see your thumb pushing the syringe. You look like you’re pumping drugs directly into your stomach.
Even a short flight for the tube feeder is problematic. The early check in time means you’re adding at least an hour to your flight on the front end, and picking up your bags after landing adds even more time on the back end. So if your flight is two hours, you’d better figure on at least four to five hours of public time. A tube feeder will be running on fumes by then. And being hungry is so different for you. Your stomach doesn’t just rumble. Your whole body shuts down: foggy thinking, weakness, apathy, confusion, crankiness.
For short flights you can prevent those symptoms by eating two cans before entering the airport. But longer flights are still a challenge. Once you enter security, you’re done eating til you come out at the other end. So double your food intake before entering. I am wondering if you’ve declare yourself handicapped when you buy your ticket, will the airlines provide a place for you to eat, either on flight or in the airport.
If they don’t, you’re relegated to the public bathroom, and nothing is more disgusting than eating in a bathroom, any bathroom. Imagine drinking an uncovered milkshake in a toilet stall. The single time I was forced to eat in an airport bathroom stall, I visualized every particle floating in the air landing in my glass of Jevity. Avoid that nauseating experience by planning ahead.
Tomorrow’s post will cover Advance planning for getting your food to where you’re going.