Doctor Day

On Monday, Harper got in to see a speech pathologist to help her with her eating. We were nervous that Vital Stem would start on Monday and we weren't thrilled with the idea of walking in, hooking Harper up to electrodes, and jumping right into it. We were fortunate enough to have speech pathologist who thought we should see the results of Harper's swallow study before selecting her mode of treatement. Also lucky for us, they had an opening for a swallow study on Tuesday (today) at 10am. We decided to take the opening and Harper was all set to check into the hosptial at 9:30 this morning...

The swallow study involves putting Harper in a special chair, putting a lead cover over her throat, to protect her thyroid, and then having Harper eat a bottle with barium in it so, when the x-ray is on, the doctor can see if she is aspirating food into her lungs. 

Harper was on board with this-smiling at all the nurses- until we put her in the chair. At this point, her eyes got big and she looked a little worried; the doctor came in and started the x-ray machine, and by the time the bottle was to her face, Harper was uncomfortable. She tried her best to avoid the bottle-put her hand over her mouth, turned her head, and even cried a little- but the therapist pressed on. Harper would not take the bottle and when they pulled out the syringe to force some formula into her mouth, that was when she lost it. She started crying a very scared cry, shut her eyes tight, and gagged as loud as she could. The speech pathologist asked how many times she gagged at home normally; I told her that Harper normally doesn't gag- she seemed surprised. I could tell that, at this point, Harp would do anything it took to get herself out of that chair, and she had one more tool at her disposal. About the time they tried to feed her a little bit of avacado, she decided to call their bluff and projectile vomited all over herself and the chair then proceeded to wail until the doctor turned off the machine. The whole swallow study took about 4 minutes and they saw her swallow twice- the test yielded no viable results. 

So, we're back to waiting for another swallow study after some therapy has been done; they are hoping that the therapy will help her take her bottle more readily. I think for the swallow study to be successful, she's going to have to learn not to be afraid of the process (dark room, loud machine, sitting all by herself while strangers shove things into her mouth- sounds scary to me). 

As soon as she finished the study and I was holding her again, she was all smiles and was grinning at the doctor and the nurses; they were cooing at her and laughing. She even took a bottle when we got home- thank goodness.

When I got home, I also found a sick little boy with a bad cough. He started coughing and sneezing Monday night, but Durinda said he wasn't taking his morning bottle at all, so unlike him, so I got on the phone to the doctor. They could fit me in, and I grabbed Jack and we high-tailed it to see the pediatrician. His throat and ears looked good, his lungs were clear, and his pulse-ox was 100%; it was determined that he has an upper respiratory infection and we just have to let it pass. 

Poor Jack was coughing and sneezing so much he had a hard time napping. He did fall asleep on me this afternoon while Harper was napping and he got some much needed rest. Tonight he only drank 1/2 of his bottle at 7:30, but finished his last bottle at 10. Normally, both the kids eat their last bottles and sack out. Tonight, Jack cried on and off for an hour before finally going to sleep. When we got into bed, Tony turned on the monitor and we could hear Jack coughing. We think it may be a long night- ugh. 

So, we have an appointment on Thursday to see what's next with Harper and instructions to take Jack back to the doctor should he get worse. Being sick is no fun and having eating issues is no fun...but those kiddos sure are fun; we're ready to have them back at 100%.