Swallowing

Today's events were what I thought yesterday's would be. If you read yesterday's blog that statement makes complete sense. I have a headache so I'm unsure of how coherent this blog will be but 161 days into this blog project I'm not giving up now.

We had our 11:30 visitor and then it was swallow study time. I was shocked about how quickly they got us back to the study. The swallow study is Ronan's favorite test because it involves eating which is hands down his favorite activity. He happily chugged down all the food and drink. The Speech therapist administering the test said she was pleased because usually it's difficult to get the kids to cooperate. I smiled proudly at Ronan as he enthusiastically ate his food.He's still aspirating but it is less than it was so hopefully this means eventually we can quit thickening his liquids. For now since he had some aspiration we're to continue to thickening his liquids. The therapist thought if he was to get tired the aspiration would be worse than what the test showed.

The surprising find was that when he ate the solid food it sat in his esophagus and they are unsure of when it finally went to his stomach because when they ended the test it was still sitting in his esophagus. They're thinking poor chewing may be some if it but since he has esophagus problems from his defect it may be something that requires surgical repair. He'll have to have another test to determine the cause and to determine the next step.

When we arrived home I got a call that they wanted to offer speech to Ronan twice a week. I don't know what to do at this point because this would bring him up to six or seven therapy sessions a week. I love our at home ones but the private ones aren't that close and having therapy that many times in a week seems a bit much for a one year old. I'm tired and I wish we could take a family vacation. But life carries on so I have to decide what's best for Ronan and our family. I'm once again praying for wisdom.