My mother is 57 yrs old and cannot be weaned off of a vent due to copd. She will be getting a tracheostomy and a feeding tube on Friday, April 9, 2004. She is still in her right mind and I would like to know if she will be able to talk or eat at all??

Hi Peggy. I'm a new member. My mother is in the same situation. Tracheosty w/ feeding tube. She's been this way for 9 months. There are 'swallow studies' that can be done to determine what types of textures/foods your mother can tolerate. For example, my mom was first cleared for "thick liquids and solids"...basically, food you and I can eat but processed in a blender. In terms of medication, some of the options are to grind everything up and put in in something like applesauce or babyfood...or just grind everything up, add some liquid and adminster via the tube.

In terms of actually talking, they can "cap" the trach to allow her to talk...assuming all her O2 levels remain good she can be "capped" for some periods of time to allow plenty of "talk time"...I do see many people that "talk over" their vent as well...while that's not advisable due to possible strain/damage to the vocal cords (from my understanding) it happens.