we couldn't get him in for weeks to do the swallow test at any hospital and speech pathologist was horrified at how he wasn't even trying to swallow or eat and said it was very critical to get on this NOW. So she gave him the papers saying which exercises he was supposed to be doing the whole time. They asked if he did them over the last week.....he answered that he really hadn't done them too much. Now you all see what I'm dealing with! Even though he was scared to death, he barely made the effort. It's his life.

So they had him swallow a liquid mixed with starch first. That went down a little but he had so much mucus that it kind of stayed in his throat. They suctioned his throat. He is still dehydrated they told him again this week and it makes the mucus worse. Then he swallowed applesauce and a tic tac (to represent the pills he is swallowing each day to make sure they were actually getting into his stomach for his GERD). Both went well. He has to do the drop chin to swallow though as the muscles are weak from radiation.

Now he goes back each week for follow up on swallowing. I will say he is doing some applesauce. Not sure about doing the exercises. He's doing 6 boxes of formula and some water. He is having more energy now and starting to irritate me! I guess we will call that progress.


Spouse of 58 yr old with BOT cancer
Stage 4a HPV16 positive
3 chemo treatments cisplantin
35 radiation treatments 7000 cGy
former smoker/chewed tobacco for 38 yrs.
1/2020 diagnosed with cancer near TMJ
4/2020 chemo 5 days every 2 weeks
6/2020 proton therapy
9/21/2020 cancer free