Breathing, Swallowing, Eating and Talking

Who would have thought they were all interconnected, the trick being to get first things first in order then the next will hopefully follow. 

Breathe properly first then take a big swallow, eat what you have taken a mouthful of and best try avoiding talking at the same time! Easier said than done, I might add. 

I have heard about the importance of breathing deeply from the diaphragm from a couple of sources over recent weeks.  The first was at the meeting at the Epsom Community Centre for people with Parkinsons to inform us on the physiology of swallowing and the importance of getting plenty of oxygen into our lungs for the all important task of eating. As it is the muscles slow down, and one simple way of ameliorating the problem would be to increase the oxygen needed to initiate the  swallowing process. 

Another would be to concentrate on the job in hand and avoid animated conversation while eating.  Dual tasking becomes increasingly harder, let alone multi-tasking.

  Another sad fact of life that I found out at another meeting this morning at the lovely dark - panelled St Barnabas Church hall in Mt Eden is that the part of the brain connected with the voice is affected in Parkinson's . Volume, tone and prosody are often  affected.  Once again, the motto is "use it and improve it".  What may seem normal to us often is whispery, hoarse or flat and what seems like talking very loudly indeed is not heard by others as such. There are exercises we can do and I will try and add them to my repertoire. It is almost a full time job!

I am down for some intensive training, the Lee Silverman method which is taught four days a week for an hour or two over four weeks, by which time hopefully good habits have been inculcated and voice quality deterioration halted or at least slowed.  

At this morning's meetings there were a couple of women there from the Independent Living Centre showing and demonstrating the large number of aids and gadgets that go to make life easier in the home, or getting out and about.

I tried a pretty floral folding walking stick for size ( would need cutting down to size) but am not quite ready to be seen in public with one.  If I had aches and pains or felt unsteady on my pins things would be different.