Swallow Test and Nutrition / March 17, 2017

On March 17^th I was scheduled for a Swallow Test with speech pathology and after that an appointment with a nutritionist.  I am starting to think that my life is going to be run by appointments, and I am not sure what they are even for.

I show up at the swallow test and sit in front of a fluoroscope machine.  The speech therapist then brings out a buffet of food for me to eat.  There is apple cause, juice, yogurt and a few other items.  I am thinking, this looks pretty easy and I like all of the food they are going to have me eat.  Then the other shoe drops, she brings out a big cup of barium and starts mixing that nasty chalky white liquid into each of the foods.  I am now feeling like I got set up. Kim can’t contain her laughter and is excited to see me down these ruined foods. I am thinking they could have at lease colored it green in honor of St. Patty's Day.

After eating each of the foods and finding out I have “A good swallow”, whatever that means, I find out the real reason for this appointment.  It seems that the radiation treatment I am about to start severely affects the throat and the muscles that allow you to swallow.  Once the treatment is in week three or four I may not be able to swallow enough to maintain my health and will have to go on a feeding tube.  Everybody in this place is full of good news.

I learn that I will have more swallow tests as treatment progresses to make sure that it is safe to keep eating, and that the food will go down my esophagus like it is supposed to do, and not my wind pipe where I will end up with pneumonia.

When we leave the speech pathologist, we are ushered to the Nutritionist.  We both sit down in front of a desk where a very young valley girl wearing a white coat starts talking with us about nutrition.  She seems very educated on the topic, but has no real experience to draw from.  The nutritionist then goes on to tell me tricks for taking in high amounts of calories with the smallest amount of food.  This is because swallowing will be nearly impossible, so each bite has to count.

I leave there with a bag full of Boost, Ensure and High protein Jell-0 samples. I have tried some of them out and I have to say, they aren’t too bad. As I am leaving, the Nutritionist offers me a challenge.  She reminds me that in the near future my taste buds will not work properly and my throat will be too sore to eat.  I should go out now and eat everything I enjoy.  I may not like the taste of them once I am done.  She also told me to gain as much weight as possible before treatment starts.  This will help keep me from dropping below a healthy threshold and help prevent me from getting a feeding tube.  Challenge accepted!