Aswanson
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2016
- Messages
- 33
- Reason
- CALS
- Country
- US
- State
- NH
- City
- Wakefield
Hello,
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read my post. I've been reading the forum for a while now and have found myself getting more confused. I have read the stickies and realize we need to wait for all the proper testing for a diagnosis, but am hoping someone can make suggestions.
I'm writing in regards to my 56 yr old husband. I ended up rushing him to the ER Jan 29 & he stayed until Feb 2nd. The reason I had brought him was because of choking on liquids/ foods and speech problems and it was getting bad- but it started before this
-About 6-9 months ago he started having an excess of saliva. He would drool, or when
he would talk it would come out.
-not long after that he would start choking on the saliva at night.
- about 3-4 months ago he started clearing his throat a lot during conversations and
His voice would fade out in the middle of the sentence
- about 2 months ago he started coughing while he ate ; then it turned to choking on
Liquids, then foods
- roughly around the same time I noticed he would mumble a word or it would be
Mushy ...here and there, but then by the 3rd week of this I noticed it getting slurry.
A little at first, then full blown within the week.
He also had feelings that something was stuck in his throat, a constant phlegm feeling in the back of his throat, feeling that food was getting stuck in/ could feel food moving down chest area.
When he got set-up in the hospital, they did ekg, cat of his throat/chest, mri of head.
EKG- normal, CAT - normal, MRI- showed he had a mini stroke roughly 1-2 weeks prior to ER entry. Dr said it was "so very small- the tiniest of strokes", but it was in the area that effects swallow/speech.... she said it shouldn't have affected him, but I don't know.
He also had a bunch of work ups to try and find the cause of the stroke - to no avail.
He had a barium swallow study and they found his esophagus isn't contracting/ spasming the way it should work the food down. On day 4 he had a swallow study and he wasn't at risk for aspiration, but had a hard time eating certain foods/ liquids still.
They tested him for MG (just the 1 blood test, forget the name -was negative )
Put him on mestinon and discharged.
Here we are 5-6 weeks later....speech is getting worse ( constant slur, tongue doesn't form some letters, excess saliva/drooling, wet nasal sound, etc)
Has been able to eat, but is still choking on liquids (doesn't go back into nose), is only eating softer foods though and has lost 16 lbs thus far. He said his jaws get tired too.
Is exhausted...he is talking about a temp medical leave because he is so tired and gets this mental exhaustion driving home from work and let's not mention the difficulty talking to clients.
His original neuro said mestinon seems to be working even though neg test, not edefinitive and haven't done any further testing. We have a second opinion on 3-17 , but would appreciate any thoughts as there are so many conflicting and secondary issues.
I appreciate very much and apologize for the length of the post...
Amy
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read my post. I've been reading the forum for a while now and have found myself getting more confused. I have read the stickies and realize we need to wait for all the proper testing for a diagnosis, but am hoping someone can make suggestions.
I'm writing in regards to my 56 yr old husband. I ended up rushing him to the ER Jan 29 & he stayed until Feb 2nd. The reason I had brought him was because of choking on liquids/ foods and speech problems and it was getting bad- but it started before this
-About 6-9 months ago he started having an excess of saliva. He would drool, or when
he would talk it would come out.
-not long after that he would start choking on the saliva at night.
- about 3-4 months ago he started clearing his throat a lot during conversations and
His voice would fade out in the middle of the sentence
- about 2 months ago he started coughing while he ate ; then it turned to choking on
Liquids, then foods
- roughly around the same time I noticed he would mumble a word or it would be
Mushy ...here and there, but then by the 3rd week of this I noticed it getting slurry.
A little at first, then full blown within the week.
He also had feelings that something was stuck in his throat, a constant phlegm feeling in the back of his throat, feeling that food was getting stuck in/ could feel food moving down chest area.
When he got set-up in the hospital, they did ekg, cat of his throat/chest, mri of head.
EKG- normal, CAT - normal, MRI- showed he had a mini stroke roughly 1-2 weeks prior to ER entry. Dr said it was "so very small- the tiniest of strokes", but it was in the area that effects swallow/speech.... she said it shouldn't have affected him, but I don't know.
He also had a bunch of work ups to try and find the cause of the stroke - to no avail.
He had a barium swallow study and they found his esophagus isn't contracting/ spasming the way it should work the food down. On day 4 he had a swallow study and he wasn't at risk for aspiration, but had a hard time eating certain foods/ liquids still.
They tested him for MG (just the 1 blood test, forget the name -was negative )
Put him on mestinon and discharged.
Here we are 5-6 weeks later....speech is getting worse ( constant slur, tongue doesn't form some letters, excess saliva/drooling, wet nasal sound, etc)
Has been able to eat, but is still choking on liquids (doesn't go back into nose), is only eating softer foods though and has lost 16 lbs thus far. He said his jaws get tired too.
Is exhausted...he is talking about a temp medical leave because he is so tired and gets this mental exhaustion driving home from work and let's not mention the difficulty talking to clients.
His original neuro said mestinon seems to be working even though neg test, not edefinitive and haven't done any further testing. We have a second opinion on 3-17 , but would appreciate any thoughts as there are so many conflicting and secondary issues.
I appreciate very much and apologize for the length of the post...
Amy