VitalStim Therapy Delivers
It was difficult to be around people who were eating. It got to the point where I did not even want to walk into a grocery store with its aromas and all the food you see you want to eat.
I had gotten to Bruges, Belgium on a Sunday in October 2002 to start a three-to-six-month business trip and headed right out to see what is one of the most picturesque medieval cities in Europe. I had Belgian waffles and tried three different kinds of beer.
Reading in bed that night, I started sweating, getting nauseous. I thought I had food poisoning. The doctor sent up by the hotel thought I had a virus. It turned out to be a stroke that left me numb on my right side and robbed me of the ability to swallow.
When I left the hospital in Belgium and came home, I was swallowing liquids and some pureed foods. But when I entered the hospital in Pennsylvania, tests showed that I was aspirating while eating. I was told to stop swallowing foods and liquids, then referred for traditional swallowing therapy.
I had to be hospitalized twice. Once because I developed pneumonia. Once because I developed a stress ulcer, largely the result of not being able to eat because I was not making progress with my swallowing. My muscles atrophied. My weight dropped from 240 to 160.
Psychologically, I was not doing well either. It was difficult to be around people who were eating. I did not even want to walk into a grocery store with its aromas and all the food you see you want to eat.
I tried swallowing therapy again, but in February 2003, after two months I was told that I was not responding and could not be helped. Unwilling to give up, I went to another swallowing expert who injected Botox into my throat and dilated my esophagus. That helped me get some liquids down about half the time. But even that little progress came at a price. I was still aspirating and was on the verge of getting pneumonia twice.
I was sitting at home one day, watching TV and saw something on the local news about VitalStim. I immediately called Denise Dougherty, who had been interviewed on the program. Even though at that point my throat muscles had been at a standstill for months and had atrophied, she thought they could help me.
Between October 2003 and late February 2004, with the VitalStim exercises and some throat dilation, she got me to a point where I could swallow thin liquids at home without aspirating at all. And when I am on the VitalStim at the hospital I can manage hard cookies, if I take them with coffee.
I am still undergoing therapy. I am still on a feeding tube because I can't swallow enough to sustain life and I get my medications through it. But the improvement has been marked. I have a lot of hope that eventually I will be able to get off the tube.