It took a year and a half (and 2 ER and subsequent admission to the hospital for IV antibiotics) before they diagnosed my aspiration pneumonia, but this happened 10 years post Tx. Its not fair that he is struggling with this issue so early post Tx. The entire swallowing process is quite complex and he could be aspirating his own saliva. Make sure he uses an oral rinse daily.

Gary
I have been stressing the oral/mouth cleaning process but he has been through so much that I fell it falls on deaf ears. Interesting part is that my Dad was a complete teeth freak before this second round with oral cancer. He would brush, floss and rinse many times daily. I think the thinks I eat nothing by mouth anymore so why should I worry about my teeth. We all know this is not the way it works but I understand why he feels that way as he misses food so much. Our family doctor was not positive with me during our last conversation. She said she has had patients like my Dad mostly stroke patients and they continue to aspirate and then continue to get pneumonia and that it eventually leads to death. I could not believe that she said that to me. She maintains that he will be on oxygen for the rest of his life. He is walking around the block every day and trying to get better. However, between the PEG and the 24 hr oxygen, I since that he has about given up. His radiation oncologist who we really liked said we need to see the ENT surgeon as this is a surgical issue and I wanted to slap him. I contend that both of them had a hand in this once tried to reconstruct him back together and the other fried him repeatedly. Let alone through the chemo from the oncologist in there who zapped his immune system! Any advice anyone wants to throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Does aspiration pneumonia cause permanent diseased lungs??

Kim, I'm so sorry to hear of your Fathers continuing problems with aspiration pneumonia. Yes, if it continues it will lead to scarring and reduced lung function.
Now , I'm just going to throw this out there. They can fix this by giving him a laryngectomy. This separates the wind pipe - the Trachea, from the oesophagus - the food pipe. Once this is done he can eat and drink all he likes. There would be absolutely no way he could aspirate. Maybe this would be an option?
Tammy