Aspiration pneumonia reoccurrence control - pls help
How long does a swallowing problem take to improve after a stroke?
My father had a stroke 5 months ago. He was in the hospital for one month, and after coming home we started giving him food orally, so we had the feeding tube removed about 3 months ago. After that, he developed sepsis and went into shock due to aspiration. There were no warning symptoms—he suddenly had seizures. Fortunately, he recovered within a week.
Now we tried to start feeding him orally again little by little, but he developed fever and cough. We consulted a doctor and got an HRCT scan done, which showed an infection in the lower right lung, most likely due to aspiration.
We already did a FEES test, which showed that he can handle food, but has difficulty with thin liquids. There is no facility for a modified barium swallow test where I live. He can not do ibtentiommnal swollow due to low cognition.
Now what should we do? We are scared to give him anything orally. He is often drowsy sleeps nearly 19 hours but when we feed him, we take all precautions—we make him alert and sit him upright. Still, he coughs a lot while eating.
What should we do? How long does this issue usually take to resolve? He is 67 years old.