First part for Jim Walton,

I had swallowing therapy for 8 months, the last 3 or so with something called VitalStim where they electronically stimulate your throat area. They also gave me many exercises including the Bitewing to stretch the mouth, sucking pudding thru a straw among others. I also had my esophagus stretched twice. This really helped too.
Good luck and try to keep swallowing. I still have to drink thinner liquids slowly but I get the job done. I wish you the best.

Second part. You might want to skip this if you have a queasy stomach.

I had no clue what PEG tube hell was until last night. As I mentioned, I had some blood spotting since Sep 20 but was always able to get in under control. Last night, I looked at my dressing and it was soaked in blood. I could not get it stopped (like a hemorrhage). My wife called the ER and they sent an ambulance. By lying prone they got the bleeding to stop. When I got to the ER, the doctor checked with a GI doctor who gave peremission to pull the tube. So she just deflated the balloon and out it came. Some bleeding afterward but nothing like before. Bleeding now totally stopped but having some watery residue. They said this is due to the hole in the stomach where the tube was and this will in time close up. They also took a blood count as I had lost a fairly good amount of blood but it came out OK and I went home.

I will always be eternally grateful to "misskate" who inspired me to push for 100% feeding by mouth in August 2007 and to the therapists who helped me to swallow.

Jim