9 weeks post eating some solids

Darkdancer333

I am tryng various foods. I notice i have to chew pieces to very small size. Chicken hangs up in my throat. The other day had pork chop and no problem swallowing. 

I still have mucus fits so thats not helping. I tried russian pancakes the other day and it got hung up in my throat. I starting gagging and had to stop. Does the passage in the 

throat take awhile to open up. Right now it seems kind of narrow and i dont think there is anything you cand do to speed up the process. I had homemade chicken noodle soup. The noodles

went down easy but pieces of the chicken would hang up and i have to follow with water. Doctor wants me off the feeding tube. Problem I stopped doing boost and i have lost like 5 pounds.

I can't drink boost orally it makes me puke.. 

Just trying to find a happy medium.. 

MarineE5

Protein and Nutrition

DD333,

I am familiar with what you speak of, Chicken is still on my no eat list. For some reason it just causes me issues no matter how moist someone tells me it is, it is not to me. I have no saliva, so anything I eat is followed with some form of Liquid. I eat scrambled eggs with Sugar Free Syrup to help make them slide down easier. My wife makes me a nice meat sauce for pasta that I enjoy and have no trouble with. My taste is often iffy at best, some foods I can taste pretty well, others are like cardboard.

As you mentioned, you feel as though your passage way has narrowed. I would say "Yes" to that feeling as I know I had Lymphedema in my neck after my Radiation treatments. This caused swelling inside and outside of my neck/ throat passage. Swallowing seemed difficult for a spell and I was sent to a Cancer Physical Therapist who thaught me stretching exercises and a gentle massage to get the Lymphnode system working around my neck better. 

My Best to You and Everyone Here 

wbcgaruss

Same with Me

After my treatment, I had problems swallowing things. Pills were a problem and some I cut in half with a pill cutter. It got a little better over time to a point. I was like you if I really chewed stuff really well it seemed I could get it down. I had eaten turkey previously and it went ok but one time a piece got stuck in my throat. No matter how much I tried to push it out by coughing and forcing air or get it down by drinking it was stuck and wasn't going anywhere. Off to the ER and they put me under and got it out and the doc that did it was a gastroenterologist. While he was in there he said he would look at my throat and see if dilations were possible as per my throat condition after radiation. Dilations are where they insert a device of some sort down your throat and stretch it a bit. Found out over time and from my neighbor that even some people that never had cancer have a swallowing problem and get this done every 3 to 6 months or as needed. Afterward, he said he could do dilations but would have to do just a little at a time as your throat is not as flexible after radiation, I guess sort of leathery or brittle in a way and he has to be careful to avoid tearing your esophagus. I had a total of four dilations and was under for all of them, I think some were done when I had other things done such as removal of my port and a colonoscopy. I can swallow much better now but still have to chew stuff small and be careful. I have considered getting more which he says can be done in the office by numbing your throat but have not followed through yet. Bottom line is it helps and I guess limitations are dependent on how or how much radiation has affected your throat.

See a gastroenterologist or ask your family doctor for a referral it does help they can check your throat and tell you if they can do them and how much they can stretch I believe.

Good luck and God Bless-hope this helps.

 

 

debbiel0

I think what you are

I think what you are experiencing is a pretty common stage that we go through. You are leaps and bounds ahead of me at this time frame, so I am impressed. You are doing great! 

I still try to challenge myself everyday with a food that wouldn't go down yesterday. The things I can swallow changes everyday. Chicken and ground meat are the hardest. Two or three glasses of water per meal is not unusual anymore.

My throat felt very constricted so my speech therapist ordered a barium swallow x ray. I was able to see on the screen, how food was going down. Once I could see that food was not getting stuck, but was just slow going down, it helped me relax when eating.

Boost is nasty! Have you tried a milk/yogurt/fruit blend? You can add all sorts of (relatively healthy) calorie boosters that may help with your weight.

Keep up the good work, you seem to have the right attitude and are heading in the right direction! It is frustrating, but,  Slow and steady

 

SuzJ

It takes time

Not what you want to hear, I know, but it takes time.

 

Pork chop? That's impressive! I was doing teeny tiny pieces of chicken, with a TON of gravy and mashed potato.

 

Basically what my Therapist said was you have to go with foods that have a "low clumpability" factor - example, you may think rice is easy, right? but it tends to clump, and that makes it harder to swallow. Everything had to be pushed down with a "hard swallow" of water. Everything.

You start to rate foods by their "clumpability factor" As said above, chicken noodle soup is good, noodles slide down well, mash the tiny bits of chicken up, so they don't clump...

 

I'm sorry, but this is the new normal.