Swallow Study

Noah had his first swallow study yesterday with Dr. Rempel. Unfortunately he did not do well, so no oral feeding for the time being. It was quite fascinating to watch though. I fed him a tiny bit of thickened breastmilk (with barium added) on a spoon. He sat in front of the xray machine and we could watch how he swallowed on the monitor. He enjoyed it, but as we watched him trying to swallow, it was obvious that his swallow is not functional. He was able to manipulate the food with his tongue to the back of his mouth, but it took him about ten to fifteen swallows to get any of the food down his throat. He just kept swallowing and swallowing but the food just pooled at the back of his throat. Then he would take a break to breathe, causing his airway to be unprotected. So the risk of aspiration is very high, plus he would burn waaaaaay too many calories trying to get the food down. It only took a few minutes and we knew he wouldn't be able to feed orally right now. It was disappointing, but I wasn't too suprised. We will wait a few months and then do another swallow study. But likely his wide open palate is a major reason for his swallowing issues, so he may not be able to do any oral feeding until after the palate repair.
Noah's g-tube has also been causing him some pain because of granulation tissue again. Basically when his tube gets aggravated, his body tries to heal his stoma (the hole into his tummy). But because the tube is holding the stoma open, raised red tissue forms around the tube. So this morning we went to see the surgeon who applied silver nitrate to burn the excess tissue away. Yes, it sounds painful, and it is. But Noah was a trooper as always and only cried a few minutes. Hopefully the tissue will not grow back or we will have to keep having it burned off.
Despite the disappointing swallow study results, I am glad to know exactly what Noah is capable of right now, and not have to wonder if we should be doing anything different. And I am so thankful for the technology of the g-tube. It truly is Noah's lifeline and his only option right now. No swallow used to mean no life. So despite the grief and aggravation that tube causes us, thank you Lord for the g-tube!