Food Pocketing

[palhuc]

After several  months of eating during recovery from stage 4  ruptured aneurysm hubby 

has developed a habit called pocketing in his cheeks, he has been eating 4 months and gained 

20 lbs and has done remarkably well In recovery. This pocketing is becoming a real problem.Any ideas any one his progress including healing a bed wound is really being compromised. He is very thin and cannot afford weight loss.

[Skippy]

Hi

 

I've never come across this before, so it's something you're going to have to talk to his GP or health professional about - the same for the wound on his leg.

[palhuc]

Hubby is still in hospital after 10 months , he has been there ever since the aneurysm. he was doing exceedingly well up until the pocketing started . Speech pathology sees no issues with swallowing  he started eating 4 months ago with no problems in fact was brunt of jokes in hospital about how much he could eat.  Now he has developed the pocketing almost every meal. It seems it started right after the peg was removed. That was taken out after 3 months of non use. His wound is a stage four bed wound from time in icu it is finally healing beautifully just saying without nutrition from food his wound healing may be compromised.

[Macca]

Skippy is right, you should seek professional help with this.  It sounds like a defensive mechanism  and he is frightened of swallowing.  Perhaps you should talk about the possibility of blended food intake rather than solids.

 

Have the doctors and nurses not noticed this, and why haven't they done something about it?  I don't know how speech pathology can tell about swallowing, but I would venture that a chat with the consultant would be more productive. Why haven't the speech people been communicating with the nursing team and reporting back what they have found?

 

I would start asking lots of questions if I were you.  Don't leave them to sort everything out or nothing will get done.  If it takes you to bring all the different departments together then so be it.  They are all humans capable of mistakes as well as great things, so if you see something that isn't right, speak up.

 

Don't be shy, get in there, it's what doctors are for and the health and safety of your husband is paramount.  Hopefully, the pocketing isn't producing a choking hazard.  The sooner you face up to the problem and get it sorted the better.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[palhuc]

 Hello again thank you for responses , they are most appreciated.  Currently my husband is still under the  care of an internist and the hospital specialists,.  He has not left hospital as they have been treating him for a neuroscientist and a stage four bed wound for nine months.  Speech therapy are the team that is currently  trying to sort this problem out. This has been ongoing for over a month now , they  are the same team that  has been changing his diet and testing his swallow reflex for some time now.

 

My frustration with all of this is because for what ever reason they are not getting to the root of the problem they feel it is psychological and maybe related to injury. The hard part to understand is my husband starting eating four months ago with little to no problems.   He gained a considerable amount of weight and then suddenly began  pocketing about a month ago. They removed his peg after they thought it was safe to do so. The peg had not been used for close to 5 weeks before removing. .this is all a mystery even the act of pocketing.

 

There appears to be no problems with the swallow testing. I have been taking buckets of different foods to hospital  with their permission to help stimulate his diet . He has pocketed with me too but yesterday he ate very very well, but at any given time he will stop and pocket. This is what is so hard to understand.

 

But I can feel his frustration, he originally went to hospital with the aneurysm and the whole focus has been his bed wound. It has restricted his therapy and kept him from advancing in his progress.

 

These are the professionals working with him. I am at my wits end and, after  10 months, I keep up the vigil back and forth hoping life will move on . He has done so well but still not walking which I believe may be the problem . He needs to move forward, we all do. He needs to get rehab for his legs.  They appear to be raring to go and his core as well from lack of movement he needs to get to work.

 

Thanks Macca and Skippy , if anyone can help with any information on subject it would appreciated.

palhuc