Hi-
My Mom is 10 months out from chemoradiation tx and her swallowing has progressively deteriorated. She has been using her Peg tube since last July when she started her tx. She was doing better with her swallowing in Sept (1 month out than she is now). Her 1st swallow test in Oct. looked good. Her 2nd swallow test was done after things seemed to prgressively worsen with her ability to swallow. (in April)They also did an esophogeal ct. This did show scar tissue. The swallow test showed that she was aspiriating on everything that she swallowed. They were surprised that her cough reflex was not working either when she was aspirating. At that point she was directed to take nothing by mouth not even water. At that time they referred her to a speech therapist. The speech therapist has seen her 1x a week and has her doing all sorts of exercises. Nothing has really improved. At her last visit this week they advised her to even spit out her saliva and not to try and swallow it. The speech patholigist brought in her supervisor who feels my Mom's problem is her cricopharyngeus. She said that there is a surgical procedure called a cricomyotomy to help with this problem. Has anyone heard of it? I have searched this site for info on it and can not find anything at all. Her ENT does not seem to be very versed on any of this either. Is there some type of a specialist who would have more experience in dealing with post treatment swallowing problems (especially knowledgeable on the cricopharyngeus or a cricomyotomy)

My Mom is a very patient person and is trying her best with all of these exercises. But I can tell that she is starting to get very frustrated. It just seems like there should be someone with experience who should be able to help her with this problem other than these speech therapists.
Any feed back would be appreciated.
Tami