For several weeks now, dh seems to choke on his food. Actually, he seems to end up in a coughing fit because something seems to have gone down the wrong way. I've read about AD patients having problems this way, but do not remember the specifics. Can anyone help me out with this?
I remember this as being the domain of speech therapists when my dad (who had Parkinson's) was in the hospital. There are undoubtedly guidelines for best foods and techniques which some here will know...
Talk to your husband's physician and he/she can order a swallow test to determine if it is time to go to a mechanical (chopped) diet or pureed food. There are also products on the market that can be used to thicken liquids to help with the choking issue.
TT, I am sorry this is happening. I can only share my experience, when Lynn did this it was because he had undetected pneumonia. I am not sure why the act of chewing and swallowing caused him to have these coughing fits, but they were hard to witness and quite scary. Sometimes it was so bad he would actually vomit.
Though his swallowing test showed he had no problem in this area, for precaution, he was switched to mechanical soft and then pureed foods while he was recovering. His recovery took so long that his doctor and speech therapist thought it best to keep him on the pureed food.
Even without an underlying cause like Lynn had, many in the later stages are switched to these softer foods to help with the ease of swallowing. I agree, it does sound like an evaluation with your doctor is in order. ((hugs))
TT, this is very serious and the advice given to have a swallow test ordered is necessary...sooner than later. My DH has FTD and a symptom of that dementia is loss of impulse control. So when he sees food and starts to eat, he cannot contol the portions and speed he puts food into his mouth. Consequently he has his mouth stuffed with food which then makes it difficult for him to swallow his food safely without choking.
In August he seriously choked on some food and we had to take him to the ER. Unfortunately it was determined that some of the food had entered his lungs and he was admitted with aspiration pneumonia and stayed for 1 week. The speech therapist did a swallow test and he was put on pureed foods and needed to be fed. We did this for 2 months and then slowly introduced whole foods back into his diet.
Your situation sounds equally as serious...please call his dr ASAP and make sure he doesn't have asipration pneumonia and that a swallow test is ordered.
They call that aspirating. When My husband started doing that in the nursing home, they started pureeing his food and thickening liquids. i notice now that he can drink regular juices but they have been pureeing his food for almost a year now.
Lynn had regular bacterial pneumonia. It really knocked him down and took him literally months to recover from. He also has a history of pulmonary emboli. For these reasons , and the risk of getting aspirating pneumonia, we kept him on the pureed foods.
Well, thank you all for your advice. I think I will be calling his PCP and I've been trying to hook up with a Neuro Psych, also. I think that maybe he is chocking on his own saliva as he does not bolt his food (that's kind of my issue :-)). I better start making a list of issues to talk to his PCP about so when we go in, we'll have something to talk about.
I really don't know what stage Herb (affectionately known as "Herbie") is in - I think early, although I think he's been losing his memory for quite some time and his reasoning button is definitely broken, now. But, with the help of one Celexa/day, he is mostly a model citizen. Although, the things he really likes (wine/ice cream), he's compulsive about and he is developing a pregnant belly for the first time in his entire life (he's 82). All in all, I think I have it pretty easy and I am definitely counting my blessings.
Water seems to be the most difficult item for DH. We have used thickner but it also causes constipation ,d I have to add Crystl Lite for flavoring. I also make sure he is sitting up straight. This is difficult time.