Tell him to not only swallow, but keep opening his mouth to stretch it. I had a PEG, but kept taking water and daily meds by mouth.

Rett:

Hope your father is doing ok. I know he is struggling and its difficult for him and also for you right now. The treatments by now should have settled into a steady routine and that does help a little.

Please help your father by having him swallow daily. One thing that worked very well for me was yoo-hoo. It was thin, soothing and also has vitamins and calories which are helpful. If your father drinks soda it may burn his mouth. I havent been able to drink soda for 1 1/2 yrs now since rad and recovery. I sure wish I could, but it still sets my mouth on fire.

Another small thing that is easily overlooked is to have your dad open his mouth very wide and hold that for about 10-20 seconds a few times in a row, and repeat it several times per day. Swallowing and stretching are SSSOOOOOOO very important. You do not want him to end up like me, at 46 years old I cant open my mouth wider than about 1/3 inch. This probably wont ever get better. Please help your dad by pushing him to listen to this advice.

Again, hoping all is well with your father.

I found a natural easy way to stretch my mouth during Tx...yawning which I did a lot of when I was sooooo tired and weak. I could also control how far I opened my mouth when I yawned and even when I made an effort to not open my mouth much I could feel muscles firing. Certainly I can't say specifically why I have not had any swallowing or mouth related problems but I do know being required to swallow daily and stretching my mouth daily didn't hurt.

Best wishes to your father, Rett. Bad enough for any of us much less later in life when it would have to be tougher to fight. As noted by Christine and others, my doctor put me on fentanyl patches and increased dosages as my condition in mouth and throat got worse. Then decreased once tx were over. That along wiht magic mouth wash and other pain medications is the route he'll have to go. Very difficult for him to experience and for you to see. Take care.

Well, my dad had his swallow study today with poor results. The speech therapist didn't say he "failed" but she said all he should be swallowing at this point is a teaspoon of water at one time. That seems pretty bad to me. Although, maybe they start everyone out slowly. She told him to do more tongue exercises as these will increase his ability to swallow. Do these really help? I'm just afraid he may have to be tube fed forever and that is really horrible for his quality of life. He can't even feed himself because he has tremors and cannot pour the cans into the tube. He'll be halfway done with radiation tomorrow. That's one good thing. I feel like this will never get any better. Maybe I'm just a little depressed for him.

One reason for only the teaspoon is that if food goes down the wrong way it may lead to pneumonia -- The water has less potential for harm.