The morning of December 29, I had two eggs for breakfast as usual. About 10 minutes before I had a stroke, I ate one hotdog wrapped up in a piece of cheese. Unfortunately,I lost that hotdog so my last meal of any substance was early that morning.
I could eat or drink nothing after the stroke.
By January 2, I was feeling the effects of no food. That morning they inserted the feeding tube into my stomach. Very late that night they started me on a continuous flow of food for the next 17 hours.
On January 4 they started pouring in food through the tube every four hours, day and night. We kept that up until they took me into rehab and then Kelly and I eliminated the overnight feeding so I could try to get some rest.
I was able to swallow my first real drink of water on Sunday, January 14. Within days the therapists were encouraging me to experiment with swallowing different textures and types of food.
They explained to me that IF I could eat about 300 calories at a time, I could skip one tube feeding.
Even though every swallow was intentional and sometimes a challenge, my goal became to replace those five meals each day with 300 swallowed calories per meal as quickly as possible.
By last Tuesday I was replacing 2 meals each day and hopeful to make progress to five meals each day by this week.
However, Tuesday evening I began having trouble with the feeding tube and so my eating by mouth program was quickly accelerated.
It has been quite a task to find foods that I can consistently swallow, but with the therapist help and prodding, we quickly began replacing all five tube feedings a day two days later.
By then the tube was causing more trouble so we went back to the surgeon. They told us in the beginning the tube had to stay in six weeks before it could be removed, but we were hoping since the tube was leaking they might permanently remove it.
Even though the tube had been inserted 22 days, they removed the troubled tube and inserted a new one. Ugh! It was pretty painful for a couple days, but I kept eating my calorie intake and have not used the new tube at all.
Kelly has worked diligently to find and prepare a variety of food, trying to help me eat. She does not prepare meals according to what might normally go together. The meals are prepared to reach the caloric threshold with as little trouble swallowing as possible.
That sometimes renders some pretty strange combinations, but I am glad to get the calories in and avoid the tube feedings altogether.
So, it is time to eat. Even though the meals may be soft and strange combinations of types of food, I am glad to be eating by mouth.
The therapist assures me that it will get better and I believe it. She said the best way to work on your swallow is to swallow so that is what I am doing.
I am glad to be making some progress. Thank you for praying.
Davy
