Nelie - Your schedule has a very familiar ring. Like yours, my schedule is facilitated by the flexibility of online teaching. Many of the excercises I so beieved in came to be of little aid in my recovery. My jaw did not recover much mobility despite my torturing it with the thera bite. It helped stop the losses from getting worse, but I didn't recover much. A few squeezes a day seemed to do the trick.

Grind your meds and toss them into your water bottle. I used to make such a ritual out of taking pills. What a waste of time. Now I grind em all and put them in my first pint of water or juice for the day. Trust me, your body won't know the difference.

My neck exercises did help restore some flexibility, but I have discovered that occasional neck stretches while I read or type are just as effective. The rigid schedule I tried to follow, now seen in hindsight, was not terribly important. Just stretch whenever you remember to do so - I stretch before I eat.

My senses of taste and smell were both lost to the ray gun, so I will be living by my peg tube for the forseeable future. Many others have told me that strong taste and smell are essential to being able to take sufficient nutrition orally. Fight the good fight, but make those exercises fit into YOUR life routines - not the other way around. Nothing helps your swallow as much as swallowing. Sips from the coffee cup, juice box or water bottle during the day may turn out to be more effective than the scheduled exercises.

Look to your peg tube sessions as a chance to relax. I pour as I correspond with students - feet up, shoes off, slightly reclined. Very relaxing. Think of all the junk food that WON'T go through the tube!!

Make your rehab fit into the schedule YOU want. You will likely have all the benefits available from it within a few weeks anyway. Don't make yourself crazy trying to get back to normal. Normal is gone. Besides, normal is boring.

Don't wait for rehab to get on with life. Continue filling your world back up with your stuff. Make those other things wait in line, fit in or go away. Life is now, not when flexibility returns. I hope some of these ideas help. Tom