Newbie help

Hi Brummie girl sorry you’ve found yourself on here on behalf  if your dad. You might find the  Oesophageal cancer forum 

better able to help you. Most of our cancers are in the mouth snd neck  area before the oesophageal area. As fir nebuliser I had a small portable one from Amazon it was handbag size was ok not brill . You could try the hospital  they may be able to loan you one. I could swallow my saliva but not good ir water gif a good time I had a n g tube for hydration and nutrition. 
sorry not more helpful. 
Hazel xx

Good evening BrummieGirl, i use a text-to-speech app called "Tell Me" its a basic app and simple to use also i use another app called Mammoth Notepad as the writing is bigger, they are available from the Play Store and are free. I never used a portable nebulizer but most people look on Amazon, i had one for home which i was given by the hospital but not sure if they still do this. I never found anything that helped with the swallowing of saliva, sometimes mouthwash can dilute the saliva making it a bit easier, even salt water will break it down, gradually the swallow should improve as the body starts to heal and recover. My esophagus and windpipe were ok but had a tracheostomy because they removed my voice box. Tell your dad that life does get better, wishing you all the best, take care.

                                                                                                Chris x

Hi Brummie girl. Welcome from me too. I'll second ,"Tell Me" I have a friend who uses it. What sort of input have you had from your Dad's speech and Language team. Is the tracheostomy permanent? My step daughter's partner has one but it enables speech as well. He breathes through it but talks through his larynx.

Best wishes

EDIT

I've just spotted your other post. What sort of cancer is it? Do you have that information. 

Hi BrummieGirl.

If you dad is confident with a smartphone, he can use "text to speech" functionality that is available on most modern day smart phones (can be found under settings or accessibility suite). It is free.

If a separate device is required that can be customised with icon and common phrases, i like TalkTablet. It is an app that can be setup on tablet or laptop. It needs someone relatively IT savy to help build customised solution but they easy to use by anyone inc techno-phobes. Costs around £80.

No flipping idea of where it all is-  it’s basically a tumour which is pressing on windpipe and esophagous and touching vocal cords.  So far, no signs of spread.  I suspect the horror is touching quite a lot of things which is why they don’t want to do surgery .  I live in hope and go day to day.

Hiya.  No real input from SLT yet, just airways.  I left message for team to see if they could recommend anything but nothing yet.  I also found one called HandySpeech which allows written to speech and text to speech.  I’m going to try him on all of them!  He’s pretty ok with tech and he’s got time to play

I think maybe if you get more info from your dad or his team, ie what the cancer is, the stage and the likely prognosis you’ll be better armed to cope with it all. Maybe you can go in with him at his next appointment 

Goid luck. 

Is it normal to feel like you’re not getting a full explanation?  I had an angry moment a few weeks ago with hospital as we had so many teams and MDT and I wanted to know who the “conductor of the band” was.  Think we are through that one but still don’t feel it’s completely joined up

Yes it is. It’s because we do t know the right questions to ask. Some teams are good at explaining some aren’t. My oncologist has always been completely honest with me; sometimes brutally so but always honest.You deserve to be told the truth. Having said that they don’t always know but at least they should say so.  

Yeah, we know no surgery just now and oncologist has been brutal and said treatment will be hard going as it may be radiotherapy and chemo together.  I guess I would like to see a picture so I can visualise it all but that’s the way my brain works!