I'm eating normal food

Well, mostly. I'm down to 600 calories a day from tube feedings and I'm gaining just a bit of weight, so I can start planning to cut that back.

Here's the biggie. For the first time in a year I was able to go to the grocery store and buy food that both Robby and I could eat and plan a week's worth of meals out of things we regularly ate before all this popped up.

This week's menu:
Chicken breasts in mushroom sauce with peas and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.
Ham and scalloped potatoes.
Pork chops in mushroom sauce with green and kidney beans and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.
A chowder similar to lightly seasoned chili with corn and bacon thrown in.

There is a theme. I bought 5 cans of mushroom soup on my grocery store run. I'm learning to eat using sauces and water to assist in swallowing. The natural reaction is to just swallow sauces and liquids. I'm learning to use them and incorporate them into foods that are difficult to swallow with limited saliva.

I'm getting better at what I call "eating in public". When I started eating again, I had to clear significant amounts of food from my airways. That makes a rather unpleasant sound that's not suitable for eating in public. I had to eat in a room separate from Robby because of the sounds I had to make. I'm getting past that and can eat food as dry as chicken breasts without offending those near me.

My recovery seems painfully slow, but when I look back even as recent as 4 to 6 weeks, the progress is amazing. I don't know if I ever really had a grasp of how much recovery I needed. Maybe that's best.

I'm also starting to taste things a bit better. Some familiar tastes are coming back and it's a pleasure to experience them again. Taste is also a factor of the liquid associated with the food. Saliva normally carries the taste of food to all the taste buds. I'm learning to use liquid with food to both assist in proper swallowing and tasting.

I will end up eating differently than most people. I'm learning that now and making good progress. I never thought I'd have to learn to eat, but that's pretty much what's required. An odd thing is that I don't get hungry. I think my stomach was shrunk long enough that that sensation just went away.

Sometimes it's hard to eat when chewing and swallowing are both challenging, there's little taste to the food, and I have absolutely no hunger. At those times, I just eat because I know I need to do it.