barium swallow study

Another speed bump in Jonathan's recovery. Since yesterday's feeding at 1pm Jonathan has been drinking from a bottle. We were so excited that things would go well and he would be able to go home yesterday. The first bottle feeding went great--no problems. During the second bottle feeding he ate only one ounce then gagged and wouldn't eat any more. Blake had the night shift last night and said he ate between two and three ounces at each feeding but did some gagging while eating. So, Dr. Bode (pronounced Boe-dee--yes, Linda, just like your dog--and I made the mistake of saying to the Dr. when asking how to pronounce his name, "You mean like a dog's name?," thinking about Garfield's dog who is actually named Odie. I'm sure the dr. hates me now.) said we will need to do a barium swallow study to see if he is aspirating his formula. They have him swallow some barium and watch what it does. I guess they also feed him different consistencies of formula to see if thickening the formula helps him to not breathe it. I personally think that is what is going on. When Jonathan eats, he swallows so many times without taking a breath that when he finally takes a breath, I think he breathes the formula. So, it might be that he needs to relearn how to eat correctly again.

Dr. Bode just came in again and, after listening to my apology about saying he is named after a dog, told me his barium swallow study is scheduled for 11:45. He is due to eat at 10:30, so it's going to be a long hour an 15 minutes. Hopefully he'll just sleep until then. The Dr. said we'll be going home today (YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!) unless he is aspirating a lot of formula, and he doesn't think that is what is happening. If he is aspirating a lot of formula, we'll be here another couple of days at least. But I am hopeful they will figure out what the problem is with this study and we'll be on our way home today! :)