Latest Swallow Tests… the videos

On December 23, 2008 I visited with Irene at iRSM, once called COMPRU, at the Misericordia Hospital for my one year post surgical swallow and speech assessment. What I have posted here are two of the fluoroscope movies that they made of me swallowing various ‘weights’ of things… all infused with barium so that it shows up. Thank you to Irene for sending me the clips! This first clip is a bit dark, and a wee bit difficult to see anything unless you know what you are looking for… I will try to lighten it before I post it on … Continue reading Latest Swallow Tests… the videos

Busy Day…

Well, so far this morning I’ve been to work for a couple of hours, then jumped on my motorcycle and ran up to Anderson Hearing Clinic to get my hearing tested. After I’d parked my bike, and walked around the building towards the front door, I passed by dog that was tethered to one of those stand up ashtrays. Nice dog… After I got well beyond him, a wasp stung him, and he took off, pulling the ashtray over, and then with him… it terrified him! He ran out into the traffic, but was not hit… some guy in one … Continue reading Busy Day…

Take a deep breath… the hearing in my left ear has corrected itself, no thanks to any of the doctors! We still have the incessant white noise background, although the periodic high pitched, metallic whine of tinnitus is occurring with less and less regularity, with no hint of seeing the audiologist any time soon. In fact, I’m a bit disappointed in the ‘after care’. My call to Dr. Williams’ office got the response that I should talk to my radiation doctor, after my radiation doctor (Dr. Jha) specifically told me to use Dr. Williams for all my concerns going forward. … Continue reading

Visiting with Irene at COMPRU

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours with Irene of the COMPRU team, essentially going through the same process/procedures that we did last November. (And I got up the nerve to ask her if those brilliant blue eyes were really hers. She does wear blue lenses over her own grey-blue eyes. Its a fabulous effect!)We started off with the head shots: full frontal, three quarter frontal, both sides and half frontal, both sides. Then we went into another examination room where they took closeup shots of my mouth. It takes three of ’em to do it; one to hold … Continue reading Visiting with Irene at COMPRU

Speech Pathology

Yesterday I had an appointment with the C.O.M.P.R.U. Team at the Misericordia (have ya noticed how I’m not getting anything posted on the day?). My particular therapist is Irene… a very nice young woman, fabulously blue eyes. I was expecting that I would be taught several exercises to strengthen my tongue and throat, but all they really did was get another of those mysterious ‘baselines’. Now, to be fair, I know that they will use the baseline if I require therapy after the fact…We did a number of things:A barium swallow. This was kinda cool. They had me drink the … Continue reading Speech Pathology