My wife (78) seems to want to choke on everything. I cut it, blend it, chop it and she's still having trouble swallowing. Any advice?

Went through a similar situation in early October: Pneumonia, bronchitis and pleural effusion, massive and almost constant coughing with a great deal of congestion and phlegm. It was hard to eat because the coughing reflux interfering with the attempt to swallow.

Besides higher levels of oxygen, a nebulizer helped clear some of the congestion, but the goal was addressing the underlying conditions.

Has she had a post-discharge x-ray to determine if she still has pneumonia, or if she has any other pulmonary issues? I think the swallow study is a good suggestion as well; it will clearly show what happens when she attempts to swallow, especially if aspiration is taking place.

Another thing you can try in conjunction with a swallow study is seeing a speech pathologist, who can help with swallowing issues. One Dad saw emphasized clearing the mouth before adding any more food; it's amazing how often even I do this - kind of like eating on the run developed during working days when lunch time was sometimes just quickly gobbling down something before getting back to the work at hand.

"Woofing" down food might have been tolerable when we were younger, but not with older folks who end up with a literal traffic jam of food in their mouths and throats, kind of like trying to get on the freeway during rush hour when all the cars are clogged up together.

Yes, do a fluoroscopic swallow study. It sounds like she's aspirating liquid or food. My dad has this problem from late onset Parkinson's. A speech therapist helped.

She doesn't "want" to choke. There is something else going on. The barium swallow is a good suggestion. Has she had any sort of brain scan to rule out a stroke as suggested by Maggie? It is entirely possible.

Let a doctor know and they can send her for a Modified Barium Swallow study (MBS) which is basically an Xray of someone's swallow. This is how aspiration is diagnosed. Depending what they find, a speech therapist can recommend different techniques and exercises that will help.

I'm thinking she may have had a minor stroke that effected her swallowing. That may even be what caused the pneumonia. That's actually quite common. Stroke victims aspirated their food quite frequently.

The trick, with dad at least, was that he eat very slowly and completely process bite number 1 before taking bite number 2. Still, he did get pneumonia twice. The second time he ended up on a respirator and brought about a steep decline he never recovered from.

We can only do what we can do.

I understand your sadness.