Hi Mandi, I believe Danny DIGTEXAS had this done (esophageal dilation) so hopefully you can get some information from him too.

hi,
swallowing is really tough for me too.
it takes forever to eat.

I saw a speech theraphyst and it did help some with swallowing. She told me to create suction in my move to help gather the food into a ball.

Also, for me, I tilt my head up a bit to swallow. It makes me feel like a crane or some sort of bird, but it helps. It puts the back of my tongue closer to the throat so that the food slides down.

I drink several glasses of water per meal, basically using water to help swallow food. Yes, cutting food up into baby-size pieces helps. Adding liquid - I use canned chicken or beef broth or milk or whip cream to moisten food.

Some soft foods, like mashed potatoes are actually harder to eat because they stick to my mouth like eating spoonfuls of peanut butter! But if I mix a little mashed potated with a solid piece of food like chiken then it has something to stick too and slides down ok. Or I add liquid to thin it down.

I also find that some days I eat more solid food, then go back to liquids or yogurt for a while.

good luck, michelle

I am 14 months out from radistion ( I had sugary prior to radiation) and am limited in my ability to swallow. Yogurt, cottage chesse, sour cream, puddings, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and ensure are my main food items. However, I have recently added some thin turkey, chicken and angel hair pasta to my diet. It takes me a long time to eat each meal. I have never thought about stretching the asophagus. How do you determine if that is the problem.

Don't you just hate that it takes so long to eat that you have to reheat your food? I guess I should just be grateful that I can eat at all.

hi,

esophagus stretching seemed to be the proceedure of last chance... i waited for the spit to subside. did 9 months of eating school - which help lots. then waited 6 months before getting the stretch... they did 2 barium swallow exams - i think that was as waste of time.

i could tell that my epoglatus was functioning somewhat, but it seemed that the pipe was too small.. my burps strained to get air out... small stuff was always getting stuck in my lower throat...

so i asked my ENT to schedule me with a GI doc. GI listened to me, then set the date... did the first proceedure... no pain during.. but afterwards for 1-3 days were not real fun... after 10 days things felt better... he told me that he increased the size from 2 to 20 mm... or about the size of the wire in a large paper clip to half the a dime... the second stretch got me to 42 mm, normal population is about 50 mm... now things go down much better... thats roughly the size of a dime... doc does not want to do this again, so i'm happy... the proceedure: they knocked me out... put a wire with a ballon down my throat and inflated.. 1st time i don't recall anything. second time, i was not completely out and remember them pushing thing down my thoat an asking me to swallow... it was weird but not painful.

i recommend this proceedure when someone is ready for it... i waited because i wanted my throat to have lots of time to heal from rad/chemo and to try everything else first... but in the end, it was what i needed. now i eat much more normally... still with low saliva i need moist stuff.. however, if you didn't know my background, i probably could eat without you knowing that i am wierd... or strange... any way,
i hope that fills in some background for you all. it certainly is something that should be considered.

in my case, the damage was probably from secondary radiation. GI doc said problem was outside not inside so it is likely that the stretch will last.. i know a woman who has to be stretched every 3-6 months.

cu,
larryb
i am better with numbers than spelling.. sorry.