Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] My mother s epiglottis doesn t function properly. She has aspiration pneumonia and as a result of this, a feeding tube was placed up her nose and down her throat. The food would get but so far and there seems to be an obstruction but after being at the hospital since Labor Day, doctors do not know hat has caused any of this. She had a couple of scans of the head, throat and stomach, swallow study and a special blood test to see if it is nerve related. She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in April which spread to the bone of the brain. Her speech was also slurred but they can t really tell if she has had a stroke or not from the scans. She can t have an MRI because she has a defibrillator which we don t know if it can be turned o or off. A pet scan a couple of months ago had shown significant shrinkage of the cancer and it showed up cold or dead in the areas of the brain bone. She had three doses of chemo- the last was June 27th. Her oncologist does not want to further treat the cancer with chemo because of the damage that it did (although she recovered nicely from high liver enzymes) Now doctors want to discharge her and put a feeding tube in her stomach without testing to see if she can swallow without aspirating. I think that with therapy my mother can regain her swallowing ability without having to put a feeding tube surgically in her stomach, but the doctors don t even want to re-evaluate her.
[|AI|]  It would be better to go ahead with the peg tube (feeding tube in stomach) looking at overall clinical picture because the diet is the most important aspect, and it should not be hampered at present. It will take some time for the swallowing to regain and u can anytime later; with your doctors suggestion, can try to give her sips of water and see if she can swallow without any problem. If the swallowing gets better . The tube can be removed, and she can continue to have feeds orally at later date.