[Dysphagia] laryngeal edema, lung cancer radiation

[bonnieh4455 at sbcglobal.net (Bonnie Heintskill)]

I have a potential home care patient that has lung cancer, had radiation treatment for it, has laryngeal edema as a result and has a PEG feeding tube.  He is still in the hospital.

My question is:  How long does laryngeal edema take to go down for him to try to eat orally.  Do I take this patient on when discharged from the hospital or wait for a while?

My gut feeling is to not do any treatment for a while due to the laryngeal edema (and subsequent post radiation pain).  Having never worked with this type of patient before - what type of cautions/precautions, treatments does one do for him?

Thanks in advance!
Bonnie