I’m so grateful for friends! Several of my friends are Speech-Language Pathologists, which means that they are experts who do tremendously important work helping people communicate better. Some S-LP’s are experts in helping people swallow better, and today a swallowing expert colleague of one of my S-LP friends came over to watch me swallow a variety of things and give me information about how to avoid choking or aspiration pneumonia. I learned that while swallowing is something we generally do without much thought, it’s actually quite complex and there are many ways it can potentially go wrong. I’ll need a barium swallow test (which involves ingesting radioactive food & drink, and watching what happens to it) to give us more insight into what exactly is going on when I am swallowing.

I was very grateful for the swallowing expert who came over today. She taught me about the mechanics of swallowing, and gave me a long list of practical tips to help things go down more easily. I feel more empowered to fuel my body better with less risk.

The very brief summary of the plan is to patiently stick with puréed soup and other soft mushy foods. Definitely worth it if that means avoiding pneumonia!

I’m so very grateful for friends and colleagues of friends!