Eileen, as for this: "According to my sister, a PT,OT, speach person, liquids are harder to get down than soft foods."

I've heard this too but not in my case. The reason why is that I am taking very small sips when I swallow and I can push small amounts of thin or even slightly thicker liquids down the right way, even though my epiglottis isn't fully covering the trachea, by double swallowing--which is apparently what I learned to do unconsciously at some point when regular swallowing failed me, and now I am doing it more consciously and clearing my thorat after each double-swallow, just to be as safe as possible in terms of not having stuff go down teh worng way or irritate my larynx.

Anything with any solid pieces in it, or even very thick puddinglike texture, has more weight to it, doesn't get pushed back as far with a double swallow as liquid does, and is more likely to head down my trachea. Small solid pieces (like you have with scrambled eggs, diced peaches, etc.) actually tend to get stuck all over my throat and the roof of my mouth--and taking a sip of wtaer to rinse them out of there doesn't really help. Maybe it would if I could really swallow a largerrmouthful of water but I can't. I can only swallow with very small sips.

The mashed potatoes I had had extra milk and butter in them as well as a bunch of gravy and they were still just on the edge of being too thick for the double-swallowing technique to work.

I think thin liquids, such as water, are a bit harder than thicker liquids like soup, though. Creamy soups seem to be about the best texture and the milk in them means they mousten all the really dry spots on the roof of my mouth and back of my throat. And you're right about spitting things out and trying over. Even with just doing thin and thick liquids I still sometimes have to do that because I take a larger mouthful than I can handle swallowing or its like I just can't swallow altogether sometimes first thing in the morning--its definitely important to keep trying then!

I just did a 30 min session of swallowing coffee with soymilk in it, as I was reading the NY Times on the web, and just to give you an idea of how small the sips are (and how long each one takes when I have to double-swallow and then clear my throat between each sip), in half an hour I got down maybe half of a smallish coffee-cup of stuff. This is the sort of thing that makes me despair of ever getting off the PEG. But I think I just need to accept that the progress will be slow, and will only get better if I really do this 5 times a day. I did notice my swallow seemed to be stronger this morning in general.

I will keep you all posted. And thanks for the suggestions and support.

Nelie