Walked all the way to MRI today (and back) and luckily it was the right hospital! Spent about an hour with Frances and had the old tube up the nose and down the back of the throat procedure whilst I sipped ribena and attempted to eat yoghurt. Was also able to watch the video of it afterwards. Have you ever seen your epiglottis? God, its disgusting to look at. Especially when its coated in cherry flavoured yoghurt. On the plus side the ribena and the yoghurt didn't taste too bad.
Frances was happy enough with the progress I've made so far. She's given me some tongue exercises to do which should help my swallow. She's unable to say at this stage though how much of my swallow I'll be able to recover. She has a chart showing the different percentages of recovery and what it means you can or can't eat at each percentage recovered. For instance, if you recover 90% of the swallow then you can't eat peanuts and other similar food. At 80% you cant't eat meat etc. Looks like she's going to schedule a barium meal for me (swallowing whilst being X-rayed) which, by all accounts, is unpleasant. She should be able to tell me more after that. I'm seeing her again in a fortnight.
Not much else to report except to say that I've already finished watching Season 7 of the West Wing which, although not the best series ever, was certainly a fitting way to end. J x
2 comments:
"She's given me some tongue exercises to do which should help my swallow" <-- oh how can you do this to us! So many replies, and none of them appropriate.....
I had a barium meal once, a few years back. They were looking for a stomach ulcer (which I didn't have). I had to eat sherbet and not burp, then drink as much of the barium drink as I could. It was strawberry I think, and like a metallic milkshake. Not unpleasant, but not pleasant either. Then I was propped up on a big silver slab which started to lean over so the chap could take his pictures from odd angles - just as we got going he called a halt, returned me to the vertical, and sent me away to take off my underwired bra which was starring in every picture. He wasn't happy. At the end I had to do some swallowing for the camera so he could say he'd looked at my whole digestive system, and it's not easy to drink when you're not thirsty. The worst bit was going back to work with an intestine full of sherbety gas and trying to exercise sphincter control as it worked its way through.
So -
1. Wear an ordinary bra, not the underwired one, +
2. Have the rest of the day to yourself so you can fart without inhibition. "It's a sad arse that cannot rejoice", as they say, so let it out and be proud.
New Hockney looks v good. I'd definitely see it if you gat the chance...
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