A reader just wrote their husband has recently been diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis and the doctors are talking about inserting a feeding tube. They asked if this was common with MG.
I’ll explain my experience with swallowing issues below, but if you have any experience or expertise with this and are able to share in your experience, please send me a comment through this blog or email me at [email protected].
When I was first going through my work up for MG, I was having difficulty swallowing. I would frequently choke on food, especially liquids. My doctor had me do a swallowing study where they have you eat/drink different foods/liquids as they watched via a fluoroscope. The food they have you eat/drink starts with plain water, then gets progressively thicker until you move to solid foods, like graham crackers. At the end, it was a concoction something like marshmallow, which was thick and much more difficult to get down.
Following this study, they taught me I was swallowing liquids incorrectly. Tipping my head back while swallowing liquids wasn’t allowing my epiglottis to close completely. As such, liquids would leak down my trachea instead of down my esophagus. This is what was causing my choking. They taught me to instead of tipping my head back and swallowing, to tip my head back enough to fill my mouth with liquid, but then to tip my head down before swallowing. This placed my epiglottis in the proper position and allowed it to seal out any liquids from going down my trachea.
If you have any experience with swallowing issues, please provide them in a comment or email me directly. I’d like to get back to this family with some helpful tips, if possible.
Of course, my first advice was to discuss all options with their doctor. If they don’t feel the proper course is being followed, they always have the option for another opinion. Being recently diagnosed, however, I’m sure they are struggling with all that is being thrown at them. I’m glad this person reached out, now let’s see what we can do to help them.
Together we are #MGStrong!