Kaylee Update

This past Monday I had to take Kaylee to the hospital for a scheduled appointment for a "Clinical Swallow Evaluation". It sounds all fancy but it was the easiest dr.'s appointment we have been to to date. No crying, no fussing, no anger- all smiles and laughter. I could do appointments like these more often. While I was at the hospital one of our amazing neighbors came over to watch Alex for me- it was so great to be able to take Kaylee by herself, but I do think when Alex saw us leave she was wondering where on earth we were going without her! Alex had a good time while we were gone (pics to come) and Kaylee enjoyed being able to ride on me once we made it to the appointment (pic above).

The reason the appointment? Kaylee often times chokes on her food and also gets a raspy sounding voice (almost like a wet sound in her throat). When we got there we met with the Speech Pathologist and she explained everything to us and Kaylee seemed excited, probably because she hadn't eaten since 7 and it was then 11:30ish. So the speech path. prepped 3 different bottles full of Barium and then she added Kaylee's milk to them and then some thickener to 2 of the bottles. Kaylee was strapped down and the x-ray machine was placed by her side and off she was....just eating. Easiest appointment yet! All Kaylee had to do was eat, and she is pretty good at that! :)

The reason for the barium? The x-ray machine can pick up the location of the barium so when you want to see how the fluid makes it down ones throat the barium shows the route the fluid takes. It was really cool to see Kaylee through an X-ray (I saw little bones and teeth...and the concoction she was drinking)

So what is Kaylee's diagnosis? She aspirates when she eats. Basically, she doesn't swallow all the milk she takes in at one time-she might have to swallow 2 or 3 times to get down one of her gulps from the bottle.

Why is that bad? The extra milk that doesn't get swallowed right away sits right on top of her airwave. If this happens milk can get into her lungs and potentially make her sick with pneumonia or other illnesses.

Now what? Right now all we need to do is add a thickener to her bottle and change the nipple she is using and she should be able to then get her food down with one swallow motion. And in about 5 months we will go back for a reevaluation.

Simple fix and hopefully Kaylee will feel much better when eating. Thank you for all of those who have been following and asking me how Kaylee is doing- looks like we have a good handle on the problem and are well on our way to fixing it!