The Swallowing Adventure Continues

I really thought I'd have time to write a post on Monday after Vic's enlargement procedure (no, not that kind of enlargement), and here it is Sunday again. Shocker.

OK, so, before Vic had his procedure, this is what he was using to shove pills down his throat:

(It's a shoehorn, for you youngsters who are like, "What?")

Then they sedated him and used this device to make his throat bigger:

(It's a shoe spreader—don't you young people know anything???)

Here's a paragraph for my medical friends—skip if you don't read "doctor." Normal duodenal folds were noted. The stomach was entered and closely examined. The antrum, angularis, and lesser curvature were well visualized, including a retroflexed view of the cardia and fundus. The stomac wall was normally distensable. The scope passed easily through the pylorus into the duodenum. PEG tube noted. A proximal esophageal stricture was not endoscopically visualized. Dilation with a 48 and 51 F Savary dilator was performed. Heme was noted on the 51 F dilator. The passage of the 51 F dilator was noted to have some resistance.

In English: His throat was smushed. They opened it up a little bit.

What's that? You want a little more detail? OK. The doctor put a scope down Vic's throat. Then the doctor put a wire through the scope and put a dilator (a device that apparently looks kind of like a carrot) over the wire and passed it down the throat to open it up a little bit. He opened it to 13 or 14 mm (a normal throat is about 20 mm). This is where Vic started bleeding (that's normal, not a big deal), so the doctor stopped. He said he would probably have to do the procedure again to open up Vic's throat even more.

Vic didn't have any adverse reactions to the procedure, so this week, he started trying to swallow things. Smooth things and things that melt (such as noodle soup broth, ice cream and sherbet, Jell-O, and V-8 juice) all went down smoothly and taste pretty good. Well, not the V-8 juice, but it's juice MADE OF VEGETABLES. What do you expect? Other things taste pretty good but don't go down so well—eggs, quesadillas, chips, meat. And he's still a little nervous about swallowing in general, so that doesn't help. But he's going to keep trying because he has two throat appointments this week (routine follow-ups), and he needs to be able to tell them what he can and can't swallow.

I feel like once he gets over this hurdle, the recovery is not just going to turn the corner but it's going to go hurtling down the hill so fast you won't even see the dust he leaves in his tracks. But right now, I just feel like we're in a freeze frame at the top of the hurdle—we can't get over it, and it's too late to go back. So I really hope they start rolling again. (That's a film reference, youngsters. See, in the olden days, about 20 years ago, they shot movies on this medium called "film," which was wound around ... oh, who cares? It's all digital now.)

And that's about all I have this week, devoted blog followers. Catch ya on the flip flop. (Look it up, young people. I'm not going to do all your work for you.) 10-4 good buddy.