I went to the emergency room of a hospital last summer because a pill became stuck for a couple of hours, and I was afraid of aspirating it. The doctor could not see the pill, but she gave me a glass of water and told me to gargle and then swallow. I did twice, and the second time the pill went down! Just like that! I felt foolish and elated at the same time.

I have learned to swallow water first so that my throat is moist. Then I put the pill in my mouth, fill my mouth with water, making sure the pill is sort of suspended in the water held in my mouth, and then I swallow. That does the trick 99% of the time. The other 1%, I do the gargle routine.

I have been tested and the results show no swallowing problems (!?). As far as the tilt-the-head-down routine, that definitely does not work for me.

Ann