Saw the speech pathologist in regards to the globus. I knew I was going to have to eat something in front of her but when I was in the waiting room I saw her go past with a large tray with an assortment of foods. When I got in there I told her I wouldn’t be doing the banana or the orange juice so we settled on a sugary biscuit and some fruit salad. She watches and then feels your throat while you swallow. She determines how strong your swallow is and if food may not be going down properly. Then she told me things I should avoid for general throat care i.e. screaming/yelling, coffee, alcohol, smoking, airconditioned buildings for long periods. You should also consider any medication you’re taking that can affect your hormone levels as this is a consideration with globus. Now the thing with globus is, that it’s only the sensation of something being stuck in your throat, there’s not actually anything there. So no matter how often you clear it, you’re not going to move it. Now when you clear your throat or cough you give each side of your vocal chords a good hard smack. So you irritate and aggravate them. And the more you do it the more you’ll need to do it becasue you’re making them sore. So (long story I know) what you (I) do is count how many times you throat clear for one day. Now for me that could be millions so she said just do it for an hour. Then say you did it 1000 times that day, the next day you say, ok, I’ll only do it 900 times today. And through the day say that you won’t do it for 10 minutes (or whatever). Also when you feel the need to throat clear do a hard swallow instead. You don’t have to swallow water, spit will do. You have to change your behaviour. She is lining up a barium swallow for me though which sounds like fun. They coat a biscuit with it then more people watch me eat it externally and internally. I haven’t started the counting thing yet as I’m recovering from flu and I’m coughing all the time from that anyway. However I’ve been much more concious of the herhmmming and not doing it as much.
