Today was the day for the swallow study. Because Lincoln's coarctation was close to the muscles he will use to swallow we had to test that he is strong enough to swallow before we can take the feeding tube out.
The swallow study was pretty cool to watch. They let me stay right next to him the whole time. The speech therapist put him in a little chair and fed him special formula that they could follow on the
X-Ray. It was neat to see his little mouth working on the bottle and trying to swallow.
They first gave him the thin formula. That didn't go so well. It went down into his lungs. So after that they tired "nectar" which is just thicker formula. He was able to get a lot down to his stomach with that.
The bad news is he failed his swallow study. This means he isn't ready to swallow yet so we'll be working with a speech therapist at our house getting him to practice the swallowing. They will use my breastmilk but they will thicken it with bananas so he is able to get it to his stomach. This also means that Ryan and I will be learning all about feeding tubes tomorrow. We'll learn how to place it in his stomach, how to give him his pain medicine and how to give him his nutrition through it.
Today I've already given him Tylenol and his Lasix (the stuff that keeps things moving along in his system) in his tube. I have to admit this minor setback really took me for a loop. I had to go find a quiet place to be alone for a minute and cry. Feeding tubes just sound so scary and I just wish he could go home all better. But that isn't the case, thus I just have to toughen up and learn all about this next step.
In about 2-4 weeks we'll come back to Primary's to do another swallow study. Hopefully by that time we'll have worked with the speech therapist enough that he will pass with flying colors and we can finally get rid of his NG (feeding tube).
I have to admit seeing him sitting in a chair all by himself was super cute.
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