Paul,

Be careful when you ween yourself off of the pain meds. I stopped using them cold turkey and broke out into sweats and chills. I had to go back on them and I eventually went down to 12.5 fentanyl patches and gradually reduced my dose of Oxycodone. That seemed to work.

As far as attempting food, I started out having cream soups for lunch and pudding. It took a lot of practice swallowing to get those muscles working again. I eventually worked my way up to frozen dinners that had mashed potatoes and gravey.