How long do you have to have a feeding tube for?

That is by far the most asked question, I have gotten in the week and three days I have had my feeding tube. I've had friend, family and even complete strangers ask me this and the only answer I have for them is I don't know, because honestly I don't. A feeding tube isn't a simple thing like my braces that we knew exactly how long the process is going to take. There are so many variables in the equation of me and my feeding tube that there is no humanly possible way to guess, I have hopes for how long it's going to stay in but those are just hopes. In reality the amount of time I have it for depends on when or if my stomach starts to tolerate higher volumes of food, when of if the doctors find a diagnosis for what is making me so sick, and many other smaller reasons that you wouldn't normally think of like weather I can keep my weight and nutrition up with just eating by mouth. This situation of not knowing when the feeding tube is coming out isn't just a me thing, there are kids all over the United States and the world who have feeding tubes who don't know when they will be able to eat by mouth, so all in all while the unknown does scare me a little bit I know that there are other people in my shoes and that somehow they are learning to cope with this new life style just like I am.