ixnay on the oodfay

Well completed my CT Scan and my Swallow Study this morning. Nothing to report on the CT Scan at this point. But the swallow study had some surprises.

First, after doing the swallowing she "reviewed the game tapes" with me -- ok, she showed me the video of me swallowing. That's pretty cool by itself.

But that allowed her to show me all the things I'm doing wrong when swallowing now. And there were several. Some were related to swelling that still exists and some were related to muscles that aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing because of pain, the radiation and/or inactivity.

I have a group of exercises I get to start doing several times a day designed to start improving my swallowing and my speech. So if you see me driving and I'm sticking out my tongue or making silly faces, don't laugh, just recognize that I'm doing my exercises.

The biggest surprise, and disappointment, was her recommendation that I NOT eat anything for a couple of weeks at a minimum. Apparently I'm not getting my airway closed off very well when I swallow and she said I'm at pretty high risk for aspirating food.

So my gameplan for trying something every day to get back in the groove of eating and to stimulate my taste buds is now down the drain. I guess I continue on with my feeding tube for the foreseeable future. Bummer.