My next therapy would be speech and swallow therapy. This therapist held the keys to whether I would be allowed to have anything orally. While I was dumbfounded that they would have me begin this therapy so soon after a surgery on my throat, I was ready to do whatever I could in order to be allowed to eat again.

As a musician who had played in many bands, as well as my practice of martial arts since middle school, I knew that it was going to be practice, practice, and practice that would bring my abilities back. My experience as a musician and martial artist were invaluable because they had not only shown me how my own adult brain learned, but they taught me perseverance and patience: useful tools in such an uncomfortable state of inability.  

Because eating and food was my number one priority, the stern and serious speech and swallow therapists intimidated me. She was in charge of preventing the serious dangers that aspiration due to an impaired swallow reflex could cause, and she wouldn’t allow me to eat if she didn’t think I was ready. 

“Hello Cavin, I’m Siobhan. I am a speech and swallow therapist. It looks like you cannot talk right now, and you really want to eat.” She placed her notepad on the overbed table top between us. She then instructed me to swallow as hard as I could while she felt the movement of my pharynx near my Adam’s apple. 

Like so many of my muscles that had atrophied from lack of movement while I was in a coma, the muscles involved in my ability to swallow had also become so weak that they were unable to perform their functions effectively. Additionally, the communication between my brain and my swallowing mechanism was poor, impairing my ability to effectively deliver food or drink into my stomach without at least some of it ending up in my lungs. After working with me on effortfully swallowing my own saliva, Siobhan gathered her things to make notes before seeing her next patient. “Several times everyday, I want you to practice hard swallowing like we worked on… That’s your homework. Ok?” She asked as she stood up. I nodded, and Siobhan left the room.