Swallow Study Take 2

 Today was a very long, busy, long day. We went up to Primary's for Linc's cardio follow-up and his second swallow study. 

They set up the appointments and decided they needed to be at 10am and then 1:30pm. Thus we had a long day at the hospital, it was our longest outing with Lincoln. (He went to church last week for the first two hours.) Lincoln did surprisingly well at the hospital. 

All hooked up to check his heart. His heart is looking perfect! The cardiologist said I could fly out at the end of the month, no worries. 

During the 2 hour break between appointments I got to visit my favorite pumping room and then we chilled as a family in the cafeteria. It was like visiting an old friend. We knew our way around from spending so much time there before we felt like experts. I think the thing that made it fun today was the fact that we knew we would be leaving all together at the end of it. 

After our long lunch we had our second swallow study. I was way more nervous this time then last, I think I realized this time how hard swallowing can be. Anyways I still think Lincoln looks so grown up in the x-ray chair (even if he is in the 9th percentile for his weight...not good). Lincoln was pretty grumpy and hungry because we had stopped his continuous feeding two hours prior so he would be ready to drink the weird x-ray juice.

Well bad news, Lincoln still can't swallow liquid. It goes right into his lungs. His brain and his swallow muscles still aren't working together. He has improved since last time, but not to the point were we are anywhere close to losing the NG tube. Looks like we'll have it for another month. We have a third swallow study set up for the end of August. Also we have to decide if I should stay behind so Linc can get continuous treatment from Primary's Speech Therapists or try finding someone in South Bend. Our insurance goes till Sept. 21st so it wouldn't hurt us to stay here a little bit longer. 

We got home around 2:30pm (we left the house at 9am) and Ryan had just enough time to help me get Lincoln settled before heading off to work. Lincoln was overly tired, cranky and had tons of issues with the liquid and nectar they had given him for the swallow study. The only time he stopped crying was when I had him on my chest. That made getting anything done today hard, especially pumping.

I needed a little miracle and was given it. The only time Lincoln was not screaming to high heaven was the 15 minutes I pumped. He laid in his bed and just looked around kicking his legs and loving life. Another blessing was my neighbor brought me dinner. I understand why bringing dinners is just a blessing now. Eating tonight was hard due to Lincoln needing to be held, cooking would have been out of the question.

Another blessing was the Moby wrap. I bought this before Linc was born with the hopes that he would love it enough to chill in it during the flight to make our lives easier. Turns out Lincoln loves it and was finally able to fall asleep for a little bit and bonus, I could get a couple things done.  

All in all today was a hard but reassuring day. His heart is healing perfectly, his swallowing has improved and we got some major cuddle time in. I am hoping that tomorrow little man is feeling better.

Can you tell it was a tough day on us?