Well, we had the swallow study today. Courtney’s GI specialist had asked us to get another one done. I wasn’t really sure she needed one as she was no longer showing signs. But our pediatrician agreed that it was better for us to check to make sure it was gone, and asked us to try the Children’s Hospital in Denver for this study. I agreed.
We got up there today, and what a place the Children’s Hospital is. The sad thing is that it’s busy like a mall! It’s not a quiet place. But, they do A LOT of different things there besides it just being a hospital. Anyway, we were waiting for our turn and I am watching some of the kids go through there thinking to myself ‘our kid is healthy, why are we here?’
Our team assembled and met with us. I am not kidding when I tell you that the first team we met with was 6 women. They asked us all kinds of questions, and even had Courtney’s past reports. They took the food and juice from us that we brought, and moved us to another waiting room. Once they were set up, they came and got us and brought us into the x-ray room where there were 2 more people added to the conglomeration of people.
Of course this test was scheduled for right in the middle of Courtney’s regular nap time. And we had not been allowed to give her any food or drink for 3 hours prior to the test. We were really hoping that she would sleep on the car ride up to Denver, but she didn’t.
Courtney only co-operated with everyone for about the first 15 minutes and then she was done. But, by the time she was done, they felt as though they had seen enough. So, they moved us to a consult room while they finished gathering their findings. Then they came in to meet with us.
I was really hoping before the test that they would pretty much say ‘not sure why you are here as all is well.’ But once we were in the test, I knew that wouldn’t be the result. It was worse than before!
The good news is that her delay in her swallow is now gone. The bad news is that she is now silently aspirating with almost every sip. They only saw her take about 20 swallows, and she aspirated on almost all of them. Silent aspirating meaning that most of us would cough when liquid goes into our lungs. But she has been doing it for so long now, her body just feels it is normal, and therefore she doesn’t cough. So, while I thought she was better because she was no longer coughing when drinking thin liquids, it’s more like it got worse.
Next step is that she needs to see a pulmonologist to have her lungs checked now. And from what they said at the Children’s Hospital, it sounds like the pulmonologist is going to be our new best friend. Meaning, they made it sound like we will be seeing him a lot. He will need to watch her to make sure that she doesn’t develop pneumonia.
We also have to give her honey thick liquids. So, any liquid she drinks going forward has to be made with thickener to be as thick as honey. Hopefully over time we can retrain her throat to swallow correctly and not let any flash over to her windpipe.
I spoke with her pediatrician this afternoon. She is going to write us a referral to the pulmonologist here in town, who also happens to be the sleep study doctor. Courtney hasn’t met him yet, as her sleep study is scheduled for April 30.
So, overall, it wasn’t the news I was hoping for, but it still isn’t a huge deal. There are far worse problems she could have, and we are really lucky that she is so healthy. I will take this small problem compared to some others it could be.
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