Swallowing Assist device ?

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set me free

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Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
41
Reason
Loved one DX
Diagnosis
01/2009
Country
TH
State
TH
City
Bkk
Anybody heard of this device ? is it work for PALS ? just think of other option than PEG.
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

I've heard of a cough assist but not a swallowing assist. There was something about an electrical stimulation thing to rehabilitate swallowing in people who had throat cancer but I doubt if it would work for ALS.
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

Yes. Here in Thai I found one reserch of that. It's applied to patient with disability to swollow due to stroke, pitch spinal nerves etc. So I just thought if it should be also applied to PALS. Still hope.
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

Still hope for sure. Believe me, nobody would like to be able to swallow again more than me.
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

I was warned against trying/using the neuro stim, or attempting to strengthen pharynx muscles by other methods by every speech language pathologist who has seen me. The SLP who I've gone to since I moved last year, has worked in the neuromuscular division at Johns Hopkins for over 20 years, and she was emphatic that it was a very bad idea...
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

Hi Rose,
really ? anyway just fyi.
it was called the sequential electrical high voltage stimulation.
prevent choking but not sure any side effects.
 
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Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

Hi Rose, do you know why they're not advise to use the electrical stimulation ? effect to speech ? just thought that it would help patient to be able to swollow again and prevent choking.
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

I did not ask why, as it was consistent advise from my very first appointment.


I looked online just now, and found a description of how it works (in layman terms) and also a statement that VitalStim is not for those with "significant" lower motor neuron damage. Both of the following quotes are from the VitalStim official website.


Here is a quote from Janice Osborne, a VitalStim-certified therapist, and is part of an interview provided on their website:

"If you lift a pencil, that's really easy, and it only
triggers your Type 1 muscle fibers," Osborne said.
"If you lift something really heavy, you have to
recruit all of your muscles, and that's what VitalStim
does. It causes such an evoked contraction that it
gets all of the muscle fibers working so it basically
is doing biceps curls on your larynx...."
(the quote goes on)

In VitalStim's official description of how the therapy works they say this....

"Some patients may not respond well to VitalStim Therapy. This may include patients with significant lower motor neuron damage"....

From what has been explained to me by my healthcarers, is that we should not try to build muscle, as it is detrimental. This is consistent with what others here have been advised as well; and of course all of the current literature on managing MND..

It is disheartening that there are no better options out there for us at this time!
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

My husband received the same advice, Rose.
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

Looks scary!
 
Re: Swollowing Assist device ?

You will lose your voice with this.
 
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