Hi all,

I had my ND on the 18th of July and the doctor had to cut the nerve that controls my swallowing so I am having to learn to swallow all over again. I have exaercises to do which I probably dont do as often as I should. They are however pleased with the progress I have made so far. I am supposed to only eat stuff with a pudding consistency but really the only thing I can think of is mashed potatos and I tried that and it was kinda hard to get down. I may have had them too thick or too dry, I dont know. This is all so new to me. I am used to being able to eat whatever I want but that has all changed now. I want to be able to eat band swallow normally because I dont want to be on the tube the resyt of my life.

What I am asking is if any of you may have any ideas of other things I may be able to eat. I am eating mainly ice cream(which I am not supposed to have..LOL) and pudding. I am scared to death that all of this sugar is going to rot my teeth and then open up a whole new can of worms.

Any help would be greatly apprciated.

Thanks in advance,
Billy

Bigmacs in the blender!!

Billy keep the faith. You are right the surgar along with a little dry mouth from the radiation will affect your teeth. Cosider now the most impotant time to look after them because if something happens and you can't eat you will have even more problems. Get to a dentist ASAP have an exam and make sure your chompers are healthy. Ask about rinses and fluoride treatments to help protect them.
Food: with some added water or chicken broth almost any food can be prueeed with a hand blender. If you close your eyes for a second when you are eating them the only thing you loose is the chewing. But still chew them as this allows the enzymes in your salive to start the digestive process. The chewing will also aid in reestablishing some of your salivery flow and help the glands recuperate. In my opinion you should be on a daily complete vitamin supplement if not taking one now. Your decreased food intake and lake of essential vitamins and pudding doesn't provide the level of nutrition you require.
Health food stores also carry a wide variety of good, FDA evaluated and approved vegetable supplements in powder and pill form add them to your puree.
I stress to my patients who have or are undergoing this type of treatment to drink lots of water and focus on nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. If you can, ask to see a dietician at the hospital for more ideas.
Limit the pudding (it's so darn good at times though)
I'll check in on you from time to time to see how you are doing. e-mail me anytime.

To Bigmacs in the blender,

Mike

Billy, this is truly a trial and error endeavor! You will feed the garbage disposer [or the dogs] lots of errors. Please search the recipes or foods here, as there are good suggestions to try. You need to find things that don't "mush out" all over the inside of your mouth-small pieces that can be controlled and swallowed-lots of liquids to help slide down. And ALWAYS-tiny bites! Patience and perserverance at this point. Amy in the Ozarks.

Billy,

I ate tons of oatmeal, applesauce and Jello just to throw out 3 ideas.

Bill D.

Thank you Mike,

I actually have some pretty good saliva. Really surprises me. I still get my nutrition from the tube feedings plus I hydrate myself through there also. I am curently running 1500 cc's of fluid through my tube a day plus all the tea that I dring and the tube feeding have to be more than enough hydration I hope.

My throat has to be getting stronger because I dont have to clear it everytime I take a swallow of my drink anymore. I have exercises to with just about everything it seems..LOL. shoulder, throat, legs, abs, you name it. Its hard to keep up with it all.

I have tried to do a few things in the blender and ended upturning one to liquid and the other was too thick. I guess its trial and error.

Anyway, thanks for the response Mike. I have been meaning to tell you that we all appreciate you being here and trying to help us when you can.

Billy

Hi Billy: Glad to hear that you are doing well, and I'm proud of you for trying to overcome your need for the tube.

Buzz has eaten a LOT of grits, soft scrambled eggs, Cream of Wheat, over-cooked rice...and I add LOTS of real butter to these, as he needs the calories and, of course, they just taste better!

From one southerner to another, I'm surprised you haven't already been eatin' grits!

Billy, I have to retrict myself to pudding-like textures or liquids, though it sounds liek the causes of our swallowing difficulties may be different. While all these suggestions are good, they are NOT things with smooth texture and, if you are like me, you may find some of them hard and some of them may go down the wrong way, so be careful and ask your speech pathologist.

Here's what has worked best for me;

mashed potatoes with lots and lots of gravy(I buy the canned stuff--prefer turkey gravy). You're right they are thick on their own.

Yogurt--not low fat but the full fat stuff. This is much better for you than pudding--less sugar and it has stuff in it that can actually help prevent thrush. I puree this with very ripe fuits such as peaches and some fruit juice and a little protein powder--makes a great breakfast smoothie

Pureed and strained vegetables--just for health reasons not a lot of calories there. I am no longer ashamed to buy these already pureed and strained as babyfood, rather than spending the time doing it myself (time I often don't have).

Creamy soups, as many different kinds as I can find, often with some protein powder added in. I also add in sour cream or toffuti sour cream for calories.

Kefir which is a yogurty kind of milk drink--good for you and good amount of protein.

Coffee with chocolate soymilk, cream and protein powder

Overcooked pastina pasta with cheese sauce--pretty pudding-y although I have to really rinse my moiuth afetrwards as I get little bits of pastina stuck in odd places and I do choke every now and then on this.

It's a pretty limited diet and the time it takes is a LOT to get all the calories I need so since I have been back at work, I've also been back to getting about half my calories by the tube.

Frustrating. Hope your recovery is quicker than mine!

Nelie

Hi Billy

I've used the Blender on quite a few things to get them to "go down". Dr Mike is correct in saying that the taste is there, just not the texture. Actually not bad. Cooked squash, tomatoes, onion and garlic made a handy blended meal for me when I was just a few post treatment. I even did some chinese foods until I realized the MSG was drying me out.

Trial and error, and yes the dogs love me

Kevin

Hi Billy -
Everyone is different. Baby food is a great source of things to start with. Kenny ended up eating ons of over-cooked pasta with alfredo sauce. We buy the 'fresh' raviloi kind at wal-mart (instead of the dried pasta)-- seems to cook up a lot softer for Kenny.

Keep up the trial and error - you will find what works best for you.
Carol R.

Kevin, didn't the tomatoes hurt at all? Seems, anything with salt, citrus or mint is the equivalent of giving Dan battery acid at this point...or, at least that's what his contorted face looks like he is trying to say.

Billy, I must use the blender like you do...either too thick...too thin...so far no successes. :-(

Although, I am keeping a list of ideas and hoping that things will improve and that soon my husband will be able to expand beyond the vanilla protein drinks.

Good luck!