Kathy, sorry I'm a bit late here...
Stephen has also done the EN (exclusive and supplemental) through NG tube overnight. He had little to no trouble learning how to insert the tube. He was inpatient at the time, so a nurse guided him through it the first three or so times and then he did it on his own. It literally takes seconds to insert (and even easier to remove in the morning).
If Brian will do it, I really think it's probably easier if he does it himself as he can feel when to push and when to slow down??
It sounds complicated but, really it's not. Dusty can confirm but I think checking whether it's gone into the lungs rather than stomach is more a concern with people who cannot communicate, such as an infant, etc. When Brian inserts the tube, he will be drinking water at the same time, this pretty much ensures the tube will go in the right direction.
How we did it... Stephen inserted the tube, not me. While he was inserting, I held a bottle of water with a straw in his mouth and he would gradually nudge the tube in with each swallow. The toughest part is getting past the gag reflex - once the tube is beyond this, it's easier to push in (with or without the water). To get over the gag reflex, I told Stephen to visualize how big a piece of food he normally swallows and how small the tube is in comparison... Think it helped???
Make sure he gets a small tube - Stephen's is 6-Fr (this is infant/child-sized but Stephen is almost 6' 175 lbs - so if it works for him, it'll work for Brian).
Also, some people have an easier time with one nostril over the other... Stephen ALWAYS uses the left side (for over two years - no problem always using the same side).
Rate of speed - as Stephen was already inpatient, they started him at, I think, 20 ml/hr and worked him up fairly quickly. We started on Saturday, by discharge Tuesday, Stephen was at 200 ml/hr. When on exclusive, he did 2000 ml/night (so 10 hours, if at 200ml/hr). He was told he could bump up the speed gradually, up to max of 300ml/hr.
When he was on exclusive, the 10 hours was restricting when he would have hockey at night (sometimes not home till midnight) but had school in the morning! Stephen did increase the rate to 250ml/hr (helped some) and I let him skip first period sometimes to finish it if he'd had a game the night before... As Brian is only doing supplemental, I don't think he'll be drinking as much, so less time will be needed.
Stephen had 2000ml/night, 3000 cal when exclusive; dropped to half the amount, only 5 nights per week when used as a supplement.
Stephen used Tolerex as his formula... not drinkable AT ALL Ugghh!!!
Bothersome?? Stephen found the sensation of the tube bothersome (not painful) for the first couple of days and then just got used to it. The noise of the pump bothered him sometimes - I moved the pump into his drawer (leaving space for the tubes) and covered it with a towel... again, he eventually got used to it.
In our experience, the NG tube really was very easy... the 'not eating' for six weeks was the MUCH BIGGER challenge! Within a week, the tube was nothing.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Good luck!!!!
