Internship-Swallow Testing
I interviewed a woman who works at St. Mary's hospital for my prompted post. I had her connection because I did a semester internship with her. During this experience I visited various parts of the hospital daily. The department I found most interesting was of cores the speech department. Here I got to observe swallow testing for the first time. Swallow testing is to process of diagnosing problems with a client's swallowing. For example, if the client notices that when they swallow, they have the need to cough after, they can go in to diagnose the problem.
When I was observing, I saw a variety of clients. I am going to describe one of their appointments to explain the swallow test process.
First the doctor prepared a few different textured mixes with barium.
Starting with the least thick substance (about the consistency of water), the doctor has the client take swigs. While the client drinks, an x-ray camera records it. The doctor then watches the film to watch for any problems.
They repeat this process several times with different consistency.
The most memorable client I observed had some type of throat cancer. The client no longer had the cancer, but had to go in for regular check ups. Something about the cancer caused liquid to spill into the clients lungs with every swallow.
The image of the liquid dripping into the lungs from the throat really struck an interest with me. Today I watched a few different videos like this. If you're interested, I linked the video below.
Works Cited
My Parkinsons Diary, prod. My Barium Swallow Test. YouTube.
YouTube, 5 May 2010. Web. 16 September 2013.
Hi Madeline, I am the first time heard Swallow testing here. From your post I think that the swallow test is pretty simple and easy test that the client take the drink of swigs and then the x-rays camera will record it. After repeat several times, the report will show the disease symptom like throat cancer. Also, I saw the video link you provide above. It makes more sense to show me what is swallow testing and how do a client feel about the test. Good work done!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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