"Above & Beyond" Member (300+ posts) Joined: Apr 2006 Posts: 378 | Hi Barb,
I think Gail is right about following up with a speech therapist as that really helped Jack. Like Barry, he was very compliant with doing the exercises to build the muscles back up. That was after a video swallowing test to see what the issues were and where the food was going when he did swallow. If that test hasn't been done I would highly recommend it. I also purchased a book from the OCF website "Easy to Swallow, Easy to Chew Cookbook" and it had good tips on progressing foods. I actually got in touch with the author Donna Weihofen who told me that it was important to start with something he could be successful with and progress from there as he mastered each level. It usually goes liquid to puree to soft to solid food.
In the beginning Jack used his Nutren tube feeding formula with chocolate and ice cream blended in. He let it get more room temperature because both too hot and too cold bothered him. It's food and he swallowed it so we figured that was a good start. The amount of food he could tolerate in the beginning was very small and took forever to eat so don't let that throw you.
Regards JoAnne
JoAnne - Caregiver to husband, cancer rt. tonsil, mets to soft palate, BOT, 7 lymph nodes - T3N2BM0, stage 4. Robotic assisted surgery, radical neck dissection 2/06; 30 IMTX treatments and 4 cycles of cisplatin completed June 06.
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