My husband is currently recovering from radiation and chemotherapy treatment to remove a tumor that was wrapped around his right vocal chord. He did well with the therapy, but not so well with recovery. It has been 10 weeks since the end of treatment. The therapist said he has silent aspiration so cannot swallow more than very tiny sips of clear liquid to prevent a large amount from entering his lungs. The therapist said there are some patients that never are able to eat again. This was the first time we ever heard that, so are quite concerned. There are exercises my husband is doing to strengthen his neck muscles and back of his tongue. Is there anyone who has experienced this that can shed some light on what the future may bring and how soon he may be able to swallow. The tumor is completely gone, which is wonderful news. It has been confirmed that there is still a lot of swelling and redness in the larnyx area and under his chin. Thanks.

I too have what 25% of all patients have, silent aspiration. Not enough to gag, but liquids do get by and into my lungs to some extent. Didn't even know it for the first 5 years after treatment, and discovered it during a barium swallow study. Solid foods no problem. I have had aspiration pnemonia a couple of times over 8 years, so you have to watchout for that. The therapist will work you though holding your breath and conentrating on closure when you drink as well as head positions. It isn't going to keep most people from eating, but therapy will take time and it will become second nature after a while.

Brian did you go to the hospital with the couple of bouts with aspiration pnemonia? When I was first released from hospital I was aspirating and couple times I had a fever spike and chills and lots of fatigue but next day woke up feeling fine. Dr.'s at MDA told me to watch out for this because it was a very serious type of pnemonia.

JCK2006: I had some swallowing problems also because I had surgery to the upper throat, romoved some tissue above voice box including epiglottis. The speech therapy folks at MD Anderson got me going again with the swallowing and I also did the exercises that you speak of and still do a few. They had me holding my breath, turning my head to the right, before swallowing and it worked. Now I just face forward and its all second nature, very few problems. Surgery was end of april and now I do great as long as I stay away from rice and all of the small grainy stuff cause it goes down the windpipe regardless of what I do. Major coughing fits when this happens...

It didn't get that far for me, when I began to feel bad, I went to the docs and was put on antibiotics immediately. It can get out of hand really easily if you are not careful. My doctors are used to me coming to them with every little thing that goes wrong.... shows you what a puss I am. But I am never going to be on the "finding it to late to do anything about it" side of things ever again.