swallow test

team stevens
team stevens Member Posts: 46
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
have to go in & have a barrium swallow test tomorrow. first on since surgery in april. anyone else had to do this after treatment.
p.s. still have the trech in

Comments

  • CajunEagle
    CajunEagle Member Posts: 408
    #2
    Yea......
    I had to go through that Barium test 4 times. Twas not one of my favorite things to do at 7:30 in the morning. I had a swollen part of my throat from rads that took quite a while to shrink, thus causing me to aspirate on food substances. The test is a super motivator to do the excersises provided by the speech therapist.
  • SASH
    SASH Member Posts: 421 Member
    #3
    Yummmmm
    Yum, barium. Now I can only eat pudding with barium in it.
  • team stevens
    team stevens Member Posts: 46
    #4
    SASH said:

    Yummmmm
    Yum, barium. Now I can only eat pudding with barium in it.

    Yummm?
    LOL, i needed that..not lookin foward to it at all but i gotta do what i gotta do
  • Ed_PortOrange
    Ed_PortOrange Member Posts: 110
    #5
    Second Test ID'd Stricture
    Hey Team,

    I was part of a swallow study done @ Shands and had a swallow test done prior to the start of treatment. During treatment 6 weeks of 30+ rads and Erbitux I was doing daily exercises for swallowing and jaw movement. 3 months post treatment I returned for a follow-up swallow test. The result showed I had a esphogial stricture that was blocking 50% of the passageway. Two dilations later and I'm about 85% open for business, that is eating some real foods with lots of water to help wash it past the scar tissue. It's just my new normal and hopefully it's getting better every day.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

    Ed
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #6
    Hi Stevens
    Yep

    Remember it all too well; you stand there sipping the barium crap wile someone looks at a screen and watches you swallow and see if your little valve goes up and down. It is not a big thing takes about ½ hour to complete the test.

    When you are finish make sure to drink a lot of water and wash out all the barium in your intestines.

    Hope it goes well for you

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