My father is in the hospital with Alzheimer's. The doctor said that he isn't swallowing his food. His food got stuck in his lungs which gave him pneumonia. Doctor says he doesn't know how to swallow anymore. My question is can he wake up tomorrow and suddenly remember to know how to swallow his food?
I'm not sure that swallowing is necessarily a learned behavior which can be remembered overnight. If a doctor attributes it to Alzheimers, it suggests there's a comprehensive disability.
There's a reason why he's aspirating food, so that will have to be determined. Is speech pathology involved to help make that determination?
If he's unable to swallow, he might have a stomach tube inserted to provide liquid nutrition until/unless he's able to swallow again. Whether he can is really a medical determination based on any tests, such as a videoscopic swallow test.
There are exercises that can be done to improve the swallowing muscles, but your father might have difficulty remembering them, or following the instructions.
The questions you should be asking his PCP or hospitalist team are why he's now aspirating food, how will they determine why this is happening, if it is due to Alzheimer's, what if anything can be done, and what is the future prognosis for being able to swallow again.
You need professional medical people to advise you. My husband was choking sometimes on his food. I did not realize there was help for this. Now that he is in rehab (for another problem) they jumped on this problem. Daily a speech therapist works with him to do exercises to strengthen his muscles for eating, chewing, and swallowing. I just learned about the aspirating food and thus getting pneumonia. Honestly, I did not know about that. They have 3 levels of food: regular, soft chopped, and pureed. They tried pureed but he refused to eat. He is now on the soft foods with some things chopped in a machine. I am so grateful for the rehab opportunity and the services he is getting -paid by Medicare. He was 3 days in the hospital before rehab for a med reaction. So I advise you to get professional advice. chris
my mother aged 90 went to hospital with aspiration pneumonia due to Alzheimers. They wanted to not give her antibiotics and let her die in the emergency department. They left her without food for 3 weeks. They wanted her dead but she woundie. They lied that atbe lasts for 6 weeks. NOW THEY TELL ME IT CA LAST FOR MONTHS. So insist doctors put the nasal tube in straightaway, don't let them starve your father to death. Get them to put an NG tube and make the Dietician start feeding him, slowly, at 30 mls, of some food like Nutrisson protein plus fibre. Be careful They upped my mother's dose to 70 mls , she developed re-feeding syndrome - potentially lethal. They told me shes got siarrhea, they cant feed her, let her die, till consultant gerontologist said its the result of refeeding syndrome and re started her on 30 mls. Research shows these nutris feeds give only 40 to 80 grams protein, apeople on NG tubes donimprove, have low albumin ( are starved for protein; signs: swollen hands, see also his blood tests for albumin. At any time, you can , and should, give her natural foods. Give him skim milk at least 200 mls a day. You can do that if theres an ng tube, even in hospital. When he comes home, poach an egg so that the yolk is runny. Put runny yolk in a cup, add warm water and mix. The mixture should be yellow. Now pass mixture through a tea strainer and feed that to him through his nasal tube - protein, vitamins, great nutrition. Boil rice and collect the gelatinous liquid, strain and feed it to your dad. Boil chicken and vegetables, add rice, and collect and strain and feed him the gelatinous liquid. My next project will be to give mum liquid jelly which is full of protein too. My mother is malnourished, please don't let your dad get to that stage. If he gets diarrhea give him apple juice, if constipated give him strained orange juice. Apple juice also keeps the thin ng tube from getting blocked . Here is what someone else is writing : Hi my mother is paralyzed after her third CVA. So to feed her we inserted nasogastric tube (thin one) because it was so hard to insert regular one. Anyway the nasogastric tube is thin, I only feed my mother now liquid type of food, for example I feed her the following every day: 1- breakfast - 1 bottle of ensure milk http://ensure.com/products/ensure-original Or 1 egg mixed with skimmed milk (make it as shake) - eggs twice a week only
2- lunch - soup -extract the water only and inject the water in the tube, or boil rice and inject the water only
3- dinner time - orange juice fresh home made or apple /caret juice or cucumber juice mixed with yogurt
I am trying to give her daily 500cc
Not sure what else I can give her, I do not want to block the tube and that's the limitation. ......
Further, there are swallowing clinics and swallowing specialists. Botox can be injected to fix the swallowing. SO BOTOX ISNT JUST SKIN DEEP NY TIMES, stgeorgeswallowcentre mayoclinic/diseases-conditions/dysphagia/care-at-mayo... good luck . Mel
on your question: can he swallow again? Let me answer with a question. Was he swallowing OK till recently ? have you noticed , as I did, a general inability to swallow over the last few months. You see, it may be just a isolated mis-swallowing. But, inability to swallow is also a last stage of alzheímers. My mother is at that stage. Her pupils are huge and she does not really focus , or speak. She loves to eat but cannot manage it. By the way, in my first post I meant to write that drs first told me the NG tube was not a solution as she could only use it for a few weeks. Later they said she can use it indefinitely. My keyboard keys seem stuck at times. BTW, the consultant put my mum on antibiotic MIRAPENEN and on dexamethasone to give strength, and human albumin IV. He gives her glycopyrolate injection as needed when she sounds chesty/bubbly it really reduces secretions at back of her throat and prevents a second aspiration (of saliva) . Hope they feed your dad through ng tube ASAP and later maybe he can benefit from botox injection in his throat.
There's a reason why he's aspirating food, so that will have to be determined. Is speech pathology involved to help make that determination?
If he's unable to swallow, he might have a stomach tube inserted to provide liquid nutrition until/unless he's able to swallow again. Whether he can is really a medical determination based on any tests, such as a videoscopic swallow test.
There are exercises that can be done to improve the swallowing muscles, but your father might have difficulty remembering them, or following the instructions.
The questions you should be asking his PCP or hospitalist team are why he's now aspirating food, how will they determine why this is happening, if it is due to Alzheimer's, what if anything can be done, and what is the future prognosis for being able to swallow again.
Research shows these nutris feeds give only 40 to 80 grams protein, apeople on NG tubes donimprove, have low albumin ( are starved for protein; signs: swollen hands, see also his blood tests for albumin. At any time, you can , and should, give her natural foods. Give him skim milk at least 200 mls a day. You can do that if theres an ng tube, even in hospital. When he comes home, poach an egg so that the yolk is runny. Put runny yolk in a cup, add warm water and mix. The mixture should be yellow. Now pass mixture through a tea strainer and feed that to him through his nasal tube - protein, vitamins, great nutrition. Boil rice and collect the gelatinous liquid, strain and feed it to your dad. Boil chicken and vegetables, add rice, and collect and strain and feed him the gelatinous liquid. My next project will be to give mum liquid jelly which is full of protein too. My mother is malnourished, please don't let your dad get to that stage. If he gets diarrhea give him apple juice, if constipated give him strained orange juice. Apple juice also keeps the thin ng tube from getting blocked . Here is what someone else is writing :
Hi my mother is paralyzed after her third CVA. So to feed her we inserted nasogastric tube (thin one) because it was so hard to insert regular one. Anyway the nasogastric tube is thin, I only feed my mother now liquid type of food, for example I feed her the following every day:
1- breakfast - 1 bottle of ensure milk http://ensure.com/products/ensure-original
Or 1 egg mixed with skimmed milk (make it as shake) - eggs twice a week only
2- lunch - soup -extract the water only and inject the water in the tube, or boil rice and inject the water only
3- dinner time - orange juice fresh home made or apple /caret juice or cucumber juice mixed with yogurt
I am trying to give her daily 500cc
Not sure what else I can give her, I do not want to block the tube and that's the limitation. ......
Further, there are swallowing clinics and swallowing specialists. Botox can be injected to fix the swallowing. SO BOTOX ISNT JUST SKIN DEEP NY TIMES, stgeorgeswallowcentre
mayoclinic/diseases-conditions/dysphagia/care-at-mayo...
good luck . Mel
Let me answer with a question. Was he swallowing OK till recently ? have you noticed , as I did, a general inability to swallow over the last few months.
You see, it may be just a isolated mis-swallowing. But, inability to swallow is also a last stage of alzheímers. My mother is at that stage. Her pupils are huge and she does not really focus , or speak. She loves to eat but cannot manage it. By the way, in my first post I meant to write that drs first told me the NG tube was not a solution as she could only use it for a few weeks. Later they said she can use it indefinitely. My keyboard keys seem stuck at times. BTW, the consultant put my mum on antibiotic MIRAPENEN and on dexamethasone to give strength, and human albumin IV. He gives her glycopyrolate injection as needed when she sounds chesty/bubbly it really reduces secretions at back of her throat and prevents a second aspiration (of saliva) . Hope they feed your dad through ng tube ASAP and later maybe he can benefit from botox injection in his throat.