|
Email
Exchange
*This is a fictitious email exchange between a husband with dysphagia and his wife discussing dysphagia therapy. Please note that the email addresses used in this email exchange are not real.* From: footballfan@mail.com Kathy, Hey honey, how is everything going? I know you wanted me to e-mail you and let you know what went on in therapy today as soon as I could, so here you go. The therapy is going to take some time, I think. I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed with it all. I know that I am just starting my therapy, but this is going to take some effort on my behalf. Since this was only my first day in therapy, the speech therapist began talking about what all we are going to be working on. I think I understood most of it. She told me that I have a moderate swallowing disorder, which is called dysphagia. We already knew that, though. She then told me that two of the biggest problems with me is that I have what they call a delayed swallow and also poor laryngeal closure. I think we’ve talked about all of this before with her, but I actually understood what was going on this time. The delayed swallow is exactly how it sounds. It is just that for some reason I am taking more time than normal to actually swallow. It should be a natural reflex, but mine is no longer quick and natural. The poor laryngeal closure is a little more difficult to explain, but I’ll try. My vocal folds are what helps me make voice, but they also close to help stop food from going into my airway and then into my lungs. Mine are not closing all the way anymore. So, when I swallow things can go down into my airway and I will get choked, and the food and drink can go down into my lungs. If it goes into my lungs, then there will be a big problem because I could get pneumonia (Bloom & Ferrand, 1997). None of that sounded very good to me, but it was good to know. So, after telling me about my problem, the speech therapist went over some things that we are going to do to try and help my delayed swallow and also my poor laryngeal closure. We even tried a few things today, but we just did a sort of dry run without any food. She told me that in order to help close my vocal folds and protect my airway, there are some things I can do that are really simple. One of them was called the chin tuck. You basically put your chin down while you swallow and it is supposed to make it harder for food or drink to get into your airway. She also did a pretty neat thing to help with my delayed swallow. She had a little mirror with a long arm on it that was ice cold, and she put it in my mouth and sort of stroked a place towards the back of my mouth. It made my swallowing a lot faster and easier, it was pretty neat (Bloom & Ferrand, 1997). Well, this was a long e-mail, but I think I covered a lot of went on today. I hope you have a good day at work. I’ll see you at home. Love you, Mark From: loves2garden@mail.com Mark, I’m glad that your day wasn’t too bad. I know that therapy is going to be really tiresome and hard on you. I just want you to get better, and I know that the speech therapist can help you. I have been so worried about you since you were diagnosed with this, but for the first time I am starting to feel more comfortable with it all. The fact that you are already working on things to help you is simply amazing to me. Hopefully I will get to go with you next time to your session with the speech therapist so I can see what all you guys are working on. If I know what you are supposed to be doing, I will be able to watch you more and make sure you are following your orders =) I can’t wait to get home this evening so you can show me the things you learned in therapy today. Your explanation of your problem really helped me to understand it. I think when they told us all of this before, we were just so upset and overwhelmed that everything didn’t sink in. I’m glad that she took the time to go over it all with you again. This is all so exciting! I have to get back to work, but everything sounds wonderful. I am so glad that everything is working out for us. I really feel like everything is going to be okay. I will see you soon! Love, Kathy To: loves2garden@mail.comFrom: footballfan@mail.com Hey Honey,I’m so glad that you are excited about all of this. I was kind of worried that you would still be worrying yourself sick about everything. It makes me feel much better knowing that you are starting to relax a little! You are as much a part of this as I am. I think everything that has happened has possibly affected you even more than it has me. It’s good to see you happy again. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got to go back to therapy again. Isn’t that funny? I thought you would have to drag me to therapy every week kicking and screaming, but I might be more of an adult than either of us imagined. Oh, I forgot to tell you one other thing that the speech therapist mentioned. She said that I need to have liquids that have a sort of thick consistency because that will help the liquid from going into my airway. That made a lot of sense, I guess. She showed me how thick it needed to be, and called it honey thick, or about the consistency of honey. She gave me a thickener that is a powder that you can put into your drinks to make it thick like that. I didn’t like it at all, but it wasn’t too big of a deal. So, I can’t drink water or anything without putting that stuff in it. I’m sure you’ll always be there to remind me =) I hope the rest of your day is wonderful. I know that I will enjoy the rest of mine. I love you! Love, Mark
Marshall University | One John Marshall Drive | Huntington, WV 25755 If you
would like to contact me with any questions or comments, please feel
free to email me at: sirk4@marshall.edu
Copyright © 2005 Kristen Sirk |