NecroJoe
Stool Chef
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2005
- Messages
- 24,062
- Location
- San Francisco area, CA, USA
- Car(s)
- 2015 Mazda 3 S GT, 2015 VW e-Golf
I swallowed a pill.
So...I'm 44. I've never been able to swallow pills. I've never been able to get down a single pill, ever. There's nothing physiologically wrong with my swallowing mechanisms...I just...can't, and I don't know why.
I've tried every trick and 'hack" anyone's ever told me, I've watched hours of Youtube, I've even bought products designed to help with this, like a cup that has a little ledge in it that water can pass through so when you tilt back to drink, it will randomly "dump" the pill into the flow of water to be swallowed...none worked. I even had a...I forget the name, but a swallow test where I swallowed a radioactive substance so they could see my swallow in an x-ray-type video...but all seemed A-OK from a "physically, there's nothing wrong" perspective.
Every time I've been prescribed anything, there's always been an alternate form factor... a chewable, a gummy, liquid, pharmacy-made suspension, or a pill that I can grind up or a capsule that I can open and mix it with yogurt or apple sauce.
However, the older I get, the more complex the health issues get. And right now, I'm on a medication that has to be given in a 2-3 hour-long IV infusion session at the hospital in the cancer ward. If this doesn't "fix" me, the next option is a life-changing surgery.
If I can figure out how I did this today (and I think I know the trick that worked, but I can't take any more of this pill for a week), I may be able to take a pill treatment which we were going to try last year, but I wouldn't have been able to swallow it. I'll need to go pick up some multivitamin supplements to practice the method.
Now, to be fair, the pill I swallowed was barely larger than a Tic Tac (though just large enough that while I could swallow tic-tacs with some regularity, it was still giving me issues). It was no "horse pill" like the ones my mom takes. So I still need to work on this method to see if I can do it with larger pills...but it's giving my hope that I'll at least have another potential option for treatment, which was supposed to be more effective and faster acting than what I'm doing now. If it works, I won't need that life-changing surgery. I'm not actually particularly optimistic, but I'm thrilled knowing that I may have "unlocked" another chance at avoiding it. Now i just need to dial-in the technique, and practice it for consistency and for larger pills.
The technique: dropping it into peach Yoplait "regular-style" yogurt, mixing it in so I can't see it, and scooping up and swallowing as large of a mouthful as I can muster, while biting on my tongue sticking out the front of my mouth to keep it from pulling back in my swallow. I know it doesn't work with thicker/stickier greek yogurt, and it doesn't work with yogurts with larger chunks like cherry because my tongue wants to trap those pieces to chew, and it catches the pills.
So...I'm 44. I've never been able to swallow pills. I've never been able to get down a single pill, ever. There's nothing physiologically wrong with my swallowing mechanisms...I just...can't, and I don't know why.
I've tried every trick and 'hack" anyone's ever told me, I've watched hours of Youtube, I've even bought products designed to help with this, like a cup that has a little ledge in it that water can pass through so when you tilt back to drink, it will randomly "dump" the pill into the flow of water to be swallowed...none worked. I even had a...I forget the name, but a swallow test where I swallowed a radioactive substance so they could see my swallow in an x-ray-type video...but all seemed A-OK from a "physically, there's nothing wrong" perspective.
Every time I've been prescribed anything, there's always been an alternate form factor... a chewable, a gummy, liquid, pharmacy-made suspension, or a pill that I can grind up or a capsule that I can open and mix it with yogurt or apple sauce.
However, the older I get, the more complex the health issues get. And right now, I'm on a medication that has to be given in a 2-3 hour-long IV infusion session at the hospital in the cancer ward. If this doesn't "fix" me, the next option is a life-changing surgery.
If I can figure out how I did this today (and I think I know the trick that worked, but I can't take any more of this pill for a week), I may be able to take a pill treatment which we were going to try last year, but I wouldn't have been able to swallow it. I'll need to go pick up some multivitamin supplements to practice the method.
Now, to be fair, the pill I swallowed was barely larger than a Tic Tac (though just large enough that while I could swallow tic-tacs with some regularity, it was still giving me issues). It was no "horse pill" like the ones my mom takes. So I still need to work on this method to see if I can do it with larger pills...but it's giving my hope that I'll at least have another potential option for treatment, which was supposed to be more effective and faster acting than what I'm doing now. If it works, I won't need that life-changing surgery. I'm not actually particularly optimistic, but I'm thrilled knowing that I may have "unlocked" another chance at avoiding it. Now i just need to dial-in the technique, and practice it for consistency and for larger pills.
The technique: dropping it into peach Yoplait "regular-style" yogurt, mixing it in so I can't see it, and scooping up and swallowing as large of a mouthful as I can muster, while biting on my tongue sticking out the front of my mouth to keep it from pulling back in my swallow. I know it doesn't work with thicker/stickier greek yogurt, and it doesn't work with yogurts with larger chunks like cherry because my tongue wants to trap those pieces to chew, and it catches the pills.
good stuff