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How Enteral Nutrition Helped Iwona Regain Strength and Stability

A personal story shared for Feeding Tube Awareness Week

February 5, 2026

Enteral nutrition helped Iwona, a patient with Crohn’s disease and malabsorption syndrome, regain strength, stabilize her condition, and improve her quality of life. Her story highlights how tube feeding supports people who cannot meet nutritional needs through oral intake alone.

When Iwona first began experiencing chronic health problems, everyday life became unpredictable. Her body could no longer absorb the nutrients she needed, and even simple tasks felt exhausting. As she recalls, “I felt weak, my weight kept dropping, and everyday functioning was very difficult.”

In 2016, she started enteral nutrition therapy. Over time, it provided the nutritional support her body could not receive from regular food alone. The difference was remarkable. “My quality of life has improved by about 80 percent,” she says. A transformation she still feels every day.

The start of nutritional therapy was challenging. The placement of a gastrostomy tube was unfamiliar and overwhelming. No one in her surroundings had experience with tube feeding, and she suddenly found herself navigating something completely new. With guidance from healthcare professionals and steady support from her family, she learned to manage the therapy and gradually gained confidence.

Today, Iwona organizes her day independently and has more energy for work and daily tasks. Her experience is similar to what many patients share when tube feeding becomes part of their treatment. Enteral nutrition supports people living with a wide range of conditions, including chronic gastrointestinal diseases, neurological disorders, cancer, or situations in which oral intake is not sufficient.

At Fresenius Kabi, we are committed to life. Supporting patients like Iwona with high-quality medical nutrition is a core part of this commitment. Her story shows the essential role that enteral nutrition can play in helping people maintain strength, stability, and quality of life.

Prefer reading over listening? We have provided a text version of the interview below.

Iwona: My name is Iwona Slawinowska. I suffer from Crohn’s disease and malabsorption syndrome. For a long time, I struggled with nutrient deficiencies, which obviously worsened my quality of life. I felt weak, my weight kept dropping, and everyday functioning was very difficult. Since 2016, nutritional therapy has been part of my life, and I can definitely say that it has improved my quality of life by about 80 percent. I have more energy and strength. The disease has also stopped progressing. It feels like it has slowed down.

How did you experience nutritional treatment during hospital stays?

Iwona: The biggest challenge was probably getting the feeding tube placed, because I am fed through a gastrostomy. That scared me. It was something completely new, something I had never dealt with before. No one around me had experience with it either. I come from a small town, so it was kind of a taboo topic. That’s why it’s great that it is now being talked about more. Explained to people, so they understand it’s not something bad, but quite the opposite: it helps us function in everyday life. I had to learn to live with it. The beginning was difficult, of course, but today I know that in my case it helps me a lot. Every day I have more energy, I can do more, and it doesn’t bother me. I work normally, I can plan my day, and I manage to administer the supplements somehow.

What was most important for you during treatment?

Iwona: The greatest support for me was my family and the doctors, because it was all completely new to me. They guided me from the beginning. The doctors showed me how to use it, how everything would look, and whether it would help me or not, and it did.

What is the significance of nutritional support?

Iwona: In my case, nutritional therapy is extremely important. I’ve had malabsorption syndrome and Crohn’s disease since 2016, so all the nutrients I can’t get from normal food are provided through these supplements. My quality of life has improved dramatically. I function better every day, I have more energy and strength. The disease also doesn’t progress drastically, and wounds, flare-ups, or inflammation heal better.