When you can't swallow pills

When TR and I were first married he had to have a drink with absolutely EVERYTHING. Nothing could be swallowed without some liquid close by. I would give him a plate of supper and forget the drinks and he would just look at me - "Where's the juice?"

And even with the drink nearby he would still choke. Not often - but enough to be scarey.
I remember driving to the hospital with a little patch of ice scraped off the window, hardly able to see rushing to the hospital because he was choking.

I remember camping - several hours away from any hospitals - and him choking.
Just remembering these moments is enough to bring the fear back.
He has a narrow throat. Has from the time he was just a toddler. He would choke on everything.

Dairy products make it worse and if he stayed off of dairy he wouldn't choke nearly so much. It actually got to the point that he would even eat without a drink nearby! Hurray!

But then it slowly was coming back.

I went on a trip to P.R. with my sisters and while we were there shopping he calls me and says that he is on his way to G.P. because he has a pill stuck in his throat and the hospital at home couldn't do anything about it. Luckily for him it went down shortly after and he didn't have to go. But scarey nonetheless.

A few years after that when he was getting some tests done we found out why he always chokes and why he can still breath even though he is choking.

He has a narrowed throat. Close to his stomach it gets smaller. They call it a hiatus hernia.
Anyway to make a long story shorter this hernia was the reason he was choking. He had his throat stretched a few times, and that does help. But he still can't swallow pills. Even little itty bitty ones that looks so easy to me are hard for him. But with his colitis he needs vitamins. Right now he isn't on any prescription drugs (Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!) but without the vitamins he takes he gets sick. So . . . . all of that to say this. He opens the capsules and empties them into orange juice. And then he swallows it in a few big swigs.

I am just so proud of him! His multi-vitamin is awful. It smells gross and it taste even grosser. But he takes it and I just feel so thankful that he does it even though it is hard.

And in case you were curious here is what he takes:
~ Liquid multi-vitamin from Garden of Life
~ Vitamin D from Garden of Life
~ Alfafa - from Solar-Ray
~ Kambucha - from Garden of Life