Swallow Test

I went back to school today and was able to stop up to the hospital for about an hour. Ali spent most of the day there with her sister.

Brady had his swallow test in the morning before they arrived at the hospital. They wheeled him down to an x-ray machine. The OT fed him with a bottle while the OT and radiologist looked at the results. The first 20 swallows were perfect. They turned off the x-ray machine and waited until he coughed. They then turned the machine back on and saw some milk going into his airway.

For some reason, Brady's epiglottis isn't working correctly all the time. This is part of the suck, swallow, breathe problem that is prevalent in the NICU. Milk aspiration can lead to all kinds of problems including pneumonia (which is especially hard on babies like Brady).

The solution is to add a substance to his milk to make it thicker (they say Brady's will be a consistency like a nectar gel). This will cause him to slow down when he's swallowing. We will feed him by bottle only with the thickener for around 6-8 weeks. Then they might do another swallow study to see how he is improving.

We were told that Brady had over 50ml by bottle at 9 p.m. and midnight yesterday. They said he slept through his 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. meals so they had to gavage feed him (through the tube in his nose).

Ali tried feeding him a bottle with the thickener at 3 p.m. Brady took 8 ml. It will be interesting to see how the thickener will impact the amount he eats during the day. The nurses told us that he might become more alert over the next couple days as his eating becomes easier with the thickener.

Ali goes back to the doctor tomorrow to get her staples removed again and check on the healing of her wound. Please keep both Ali and Brady in your thoughts and prayers.

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady