Laryngectomy

Hi everyone! I haven't been updating because I've been having internet issues for a few weeks, I felt so out of touch with the world with no internet. All resolved now.

I went to a Laryngectomy conference yesterday with the RD that I was working with for 3 weeks (I'm working with a different RD now). The conference was for professionals (mainly MDs and RNs), and individuals who are training to be caregivers of laryngectomees. The RD from the VA that I went with was one of the presenters. She spoke on the role of dietitians and nutrition-related issues with laryngectomy.

It was great! I have never looked at laryngectomy so closely. I met a lot a lot of people who have undergone the procedure, and I heard about how they're living their lives now, with the change in the way they eat (no smell, some have their epiglottis removed as well), and the way they speak (they have all kinds of instruments that facilitate laryngectomees in their regular jobs, like a microphone and speakers for teachers, etc.), they can even swim and some even still become bodybuilders, which was a little funny. I also got a chance to hear about the area of Speech Pathology a little bit more. It was neat, since we work with them so closely sometimes to monitor patients' tolerance to his/her diet consistency.

The RD and I were pretty much the only dietitian/future dietitian in the entire conference, so I felt that we were representing our field. She spoke on the basics of nutrition, what we do as dietitians, and some issues relating to laryngectomy and esophageal cancer specifically. I thought she represented us well. I even helped her make a few of her slides for her presentation. Yay.

Anyway, that was a one-day break from clinical. I'm off to the nursing home next week, I'm excited to see the differences between long-term care and acute care.