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Sarah: sooo Louise and I had a great afternoon at the East Riding Community Hospital - on the ward (& we found a few nurses in the physio dept too!). We set up a dysphagia trolley and wheeled ourselves around - sharing info and answering questions with staff, patients and families. Spreading awarenss of swallowing difficulites and also providing a bit of patient specific advice to families and some informal training to new starter and agency staff. I think this was well recieved and we managed to reach a bigger audience being mobile than i have ever done so before when asking people to come to me for a drop in training session - i think we might make if a quarterly update session!

Here are a few photos (i hope) of our afternoon




So - on to thinking about Wednesday... I'm pretty happy with my plan for my "blend off" pudding entry, however planning the days meals (I picked out level 4 puree) has really made me question the complexities we pose our patients with. I mean I'm a fairly competent cook and I'm supposed to be an expert in the field of dysphagia - however I've turned to a resource from OakHouse Kitchens who provide chefs with advice re: modified texture foods for recipes.  I'm also considering the restrictions of this e.g. in social situations - I dont work Wednesdays and look after my 2 children. Recently this has been a nice opportunity to catch up with my sister who has a newborn and we have often gone somewhere for lunch or cake - considering this I googled battery powered blenders and John Lewis do one for £24 - I wonder how good it is and whether it would be a satisfactory option for use when eating out? Also I doubt I'd feel comfortable doing it? So, I suppose my challenge to myself is to ask next time I visit a cafe whether they would blend my meal for me? Wonder how accesible this would be?

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