Amy, the Speech Therapist was very friendly and efficient, and it was clear that she had taken the time to read my notes so that she was familiar with my situation.
She asked lots of questions and had me doing lots of voice exercises to hear what I sounded like as well as things like sticking my tongue out and moving it rapidly in and out and side to side to see if it worked properly.
Following that she observed me eating and drinking because I’ve had some small difficulty with swallowing, leading to coughing and choking which is also common with Parkinson’s. The real issue is that if food or drink keeps on ‘going down the wrong way’ it may cause various chest infections.
Her main conclusion was that I have some tremor and rigidity in my tongue and my windpipe is not being closed properly, causing the ‘choking’ and gave me advice on what to eat and drink – a ‘soft and moist’ diet she called it. I don’t want any of that nonsense, it would feel like I was giving in.
The best part was that she will get me into a voice therapy group or one-to-one in Shavington medical centre not too far from home, probably in October and will also put me in touch with a Specialist Parkinson’s nurse when she can.
She is coming to my home today at 1.15pm. We’ll see what happens next…