Well I just had my swallowing test. It's kind of neat watching a video of yourself swallowing as you do it. And it turns out that when I feel stuff is getting caught in my throat and almost going down my airway-that's because it IS. It seems I can drink liquids OK (but not fast--and I've always felt frustrated with how slowly I seem to have to sip water or whatever) because every time I swallow I double-swallow to clear the spot where the liquids collect behind my epiglottis--which apparently looked "stubby" to the doctor and he thought could be damaged by the radiation but definitely isn't moving the way it should be to protect my airway and to help me swallow. I wasn't aware I was double-swallowing but the speech pathologist said it was a good sign I had learned to do that with liquids without thinking.

It's good news because it means I am feeling when stuff gets stuck there so I'm not so likely to actually inhale things into my lungs. Anyway, he gave me some exercises to do to strengthen the muscles that control the movement of my thorat around the epiglottis and I see him in a week so he can see how it's going.

So the bad news is it isn't really just as simple as start with liquids and then move on to solids because I really have to rehabilitate the muscles on my throat before swallowing anything at all solid is going to work. But he seemed to think with the exercises eventually I'll be able to get back to eating solid food. I'm really glad I went for that.....