EDIT, EDIT! I meant to type "campus" which means it must be time for me to go to bed. Sweet dreams, everyone.

Hi to all,

OK, my mouth was stinging and I took some medicine for thrush. It works!! My mouth is feeling better and I am able to taste better. I did not show big signs of having thrush. So check your mouth and see if it looks a little white.

The name of the medicine is Nystatin, liquid swish and swallow. Since we all have dry mouth we are very prone to have this Thrush recurrence. I have this on hand for when I think I have a problem starting.

Sure hope this will help you. It is worth a try.

Take care,
Diane

OK, I'm wondering if anyone else has this happen to them. I'll be swallowing stuff and everything is going fine, then suddenly I try to take a swallow and it's like there's some kind of wall at the top of my throat--all the stuff comes back in my mouth and I can't swallow a thing. And no matter what I do, how I tilt my head, etc. that keeps happening. And what I've learned over time is that always ALWAYS some time after this happens (sometimes we're talking even an hour or two later) I give a cough and up comes some solid piece of something that must have been stuck *somewhere* though not where I could feel it--and somehow it keeps me from getting anything else down. These are often little pieces of stuff, not big, but something fairly solid like a hunk of vegetable from a soup I thought I had strained or a hunk of sausage in a sausage gravy that I thought I had pulled all the chunks outof. This just happened and I was eating some commercially prepared guacamole and the thing that I eventually coughed up was, I think, a smallish piece of avocado skin that had somehow gotten in there. If I were swallowing normally, I'm sure it would have gone down with everything else because it wasn't a big piece at all.

Anyone have this happen? Can anyone tell me what's actually going on when that happens?

Nelie

Nelie,

I hope this is not a dump question. I am sure you have had a swallow test. Right? They need to do one and see how you are processing it and how far. I can not believe you are still having so much trouble. I think they are missing something.

I had one done and they could see how far and where it was hanging up. They also found on the first Dilation a web like scare that would go up and down when I would breath. This accounted for the times I could swallow fine and other times I could not. I just had my 2nd dilation done.

Hope you call & tell them what is going on.

Take care,
Diane

Nellie,

You just described what happens to me 7 out of 10 times that I take my thyroid pill. It's a TINY pill mind you, but sometimes I will go to swallow it and it's like you say.............a WALL comes up and nothing can get past it. I learned a trick where I will relax my mouth, than immediately swallow again with force and it goes down. The first few times it happened I spit it out in the sink, but now I've learned to manage it.

Hope this helps!

Minnie

Diane, I have had tons of swallowing tests. This thing I described doesn't happen all that often and has never happened during the swallowing test. I'm sure if it did, they could see why but I can't get it to happen at will.

Minnie, yeah, I am still grining up my thyroid pill (and my other pills--Tamoxifen and Salagen) and flushing them through the tube. I have tried and tried to swallow the thyroid pill (like you say, it is so tiny) and it just doesn't work. I guess if I want to get off the tube entirely I'll have to learn how to take those pills in a drink or something....

But I will try to relax my mouth and throat and swallow again right away. Maybe that will help.

Nelie

Nelie,

Just so you know, I am another one who experiences that particular event quite often. Like Minnie says, you have to try to relax your mouth and swallow again. I can get my thyroid pill down but everything else has to be cut in half and sometimes fourths. I have to take really small bites of food and try not to eat too fast or I will get blocked - that's my name for it - it's a scary feeling - but I've noticed I can breathe just fine during it.

Anybody else having really dry mouth issues right now? Mine is drier than usual and drier deeper down in the throat where no amount of liquid seems to reach it to relieve the dryness. My doctor told me last year that summer was not my friend - you would think the moist air (and where I live in Arkansas the humidity is oppressive)would help make the mouth more moist, but it's just the opposite - dry air is easier on the throat and mouth. My doc said I would love being out west.

Hey Nelie, thanks for the words of encourgement about returning to school. I just finished my first week and am loving it. There are only 11 students in my class and 80% of them are my age or older. I am very comfortable being there - everything is moving very fast though and it took me a couple of days to make sense of anything but have now got a handle on things (I think) Anyway, did the guacamole work for you at all? I just made some tonight - it's something that just works good for me. In addition, my doctor prescribed Xanax to help me be less anxious about eating - it takes me a few minutes to talk myself into being ready to eat cause my mouth will go dry and my throat will start closing up - I believe the Xanax does help-and I don't have to take it everyday - just about every 2 days or so. At least I have one food that goes down with no problem - ice cream - and I love ice cream! Just keep trying with all the different foods you can think of. Oh, I have also noticed that I can swallow better after engaging in physical activity like hiking, walking, kayaking etc.

Pam

Pam,

I'm glad school is going well--I told you you wouldn't feel out of place there!

Yes, my mouth is feeling dryer lately. I have been not using the two humidifiers I have in our bedroom on my side of the bed because we are sleeping with the windows open--and the air here is fairly humid at night usually. I didn't know dry air was better--if that is so, why do humidifiers right near me at night usually help my mouth be not so cotton-mouthy? Anyway, I have been trying to use that Biotene liquid at night, putting a bunch in my mouth before I go to sleep. Istill wake up dry in the middle of the night but no so often dry and in horrible pain from it, so I must be drying oout a little less.

Pam, speaking of physical activity and drymouth, how do you deal with that during aerobic activity? I find as soon as I start breating deeply from hiking a hill or whatever, my tongue also starts sticking to the roof of my mouth because I get so dry.

Nelie

Nelie,

Sure sorry that your swallowing is giving you so much trouble. I was hoping that through swallow test or a scoping they could find your problem.

I truly hope you will get it figured out.

take care
Diane