Thanks for the exercises. I have looked them up on Google and hope some might help.

In the Botox injection that I had last fall, for a week or two afterwards I burped a lot afterwards. As a result, I chose not to get the optional followup injection a week later. It did seem to help my ability to speak a little bit, but soon afterwards I started radiation treatment which took that away.

I had had a swallow test the week before the Botox where I was shown that food was getting stuck part way down. At that time, I could eat anything but needed to take small bites, chew completely and then drink a fair amount of water to get it to go all the way down. It did not really impair my quality of life the way my swallowing problems do now.

In my laryngectomy, the crycopharyngeal muscle was not cut. Apparently this is done sometimes and depends on whether the surgeon determines it is necessary for that person.

I have found that when I get completely stopped up, I can't get anything down until whatever is plugging me up gets burped up. That usually happens after about 2 hours and its always when I am trying to eat something solid. No matter how much I try to chew and dissolve it in my mouth before swallowing, a very small piece about 1/4 inch across will go down and get stuck. In my last swallow test, the SLP showed me again what was happening when I was trying to swallow. There are multiple things going on but one is strictures in the esophagus from the radiation and the other is the crycopharyngeal muscle spasming and not relaxing.

Although I have been encouraged to keep trying to eat solid food, its something I have to avoid for at least the first half of the meal so that I can get something down.