SK's Swallow Study Results

I purposefully left out the results of the swallow study SK had done last Thursday on the last post b/c...well...I had no results. Guess what, I have results now and I am extremely delighted and surprised at the results given what happened last Thursday.

I'll start at the beginning, SK's swallow study didn't go well. She took a few bites and then coughed it all up and then took maybe two more bites and then the swallow study came to an end b/c she aspirated her food. That day when the therapist talked to me right after the study was over, it began something like this, "Ummm...well...let me tell you about the positive things I saw this time," not really the results I was looking for.

The two therapists that were in there for SK's swallow study were therapists that we knew and that knew Sophie, so that was nice. They also knew how badly I wanted to be able to feed her over the summer, so I knew if there was any chance at all that they were definitely going to try to work it out. Well, we left there that day with an "I'll call you," it didn't look good. We were also given the Radiologist's results which was global swallowing dysfunction, double ouch.

Now, I have to say that we went into this test knowing that she would fail it and fail it she did, but that was not the reason it was done. We re-tested her to see if there had been any progress since we started the Vital Stim therapy last Spring and to see if I would be able to safely feed her over the summer. So I did not expect her to pass with flying colors but I was hoping for a little more than I left with.

Remember my wanting some scrap of good news out this about two posts ago...well, we got it! I am able to feed SK 5 bites of stage 2 baby food everyday!! I know this doesn't sound like much, we aren't trying to go for calories here. We are trying to go for learning, exercising and training those swallowing mechanisms and muscles. Y'all have to know there was some "shock and awe" in this house when that therapist called here and told me the good news.

The weekend went so well. SK did great with her bites of food. I know this is shocking to all of you who know me, but I have have been doing it two times a day instead of one...shhhh. I am so proud of her, it's amazing to see her learning this. I don't know where any of this will lead but for now I am feeding my baby girl bites of food and I am loving it!