My Job

I am a speech pathologist in a nursing home. I would say about 80% of my job is to determine what diet is the safest for each resident to eat. Regular, mechanical soft, chopped meats, ground meats, pureed meats, thickened liquids... or maybe you are not safe to swallow any type of food at all.

I just started reading a book called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (book given to me by my friend Sarah Ray). The first chapter takes place in a nursing home. A man is 90 (or 93-- he can't remember) and this is his internal commentary as he is headed into the dining room:
"This being Friday, we're having the usual nutritious but uninteresting combination of meat loaf, creamed corn, reconstituted mashed potatoes, and gravy that may have been waved over a piece of beef at some point in its life. And they wonder why I lose weight. I know some of us don't have teeth, but I do, and I want pot roast. My wife's, complete with leathery bay leaves.... But above all, I want corn on the cob. Sometimes I think that if I had to choose between an ear of corn or making love to a woman, I'd choose the corn..... It's a fantasy, I know that. Neither will happen. I just like to weigh the options..."

He's hit the nail on the head... You're 90 years old and the thing you want the most is corn on the cob. I say, give them man some corn on the cob! Unfortunately, for those elderly people who do not have teeth, or who are unable to safely chew or swallow, corn on the cob is not an option. I can try to teach you to be able to compensate and adequately chew/swallow it, but if that doesn't work, I'll have to give you pureed corn on the cob.

Is pureed corn on the cob better than no corn on the cob at all?

It is so interesting to think about what I do from another perspective. A resident might not see me as the speech pathologist who tries to teach you strategies to chew/swallow safely so you can tolerate regular food. Instead, I am that lady who changes your diet to mush when you can no longer tolerate regular food, even though all you want is corn on the cob.