Maria had her barium swallow and did GREAT! It’s her second best one ever.
Thicknesses of liquids are measured (from thickest down) using the labels honey, honey-thin, nectar, thick, thin (like milk), very thin (like water). Maria is currently on honey-thin.
We had been concerned about how well she was going to perform, but her breathing has been so good lately we started to get optimistic. Ever since the Jin Shin Jyutsu lady did the “lung energy” treatment, all of her breathing problems went away and she hasn’t been breathing rough after eating or drinking. However they kept us waiting so long that Maria was getting tired so we went back to being worried she’d do poorly.
Usually it takes some time to get her drinking once the test begins, with the hospital people nagging us to get moving. This time, Maria started drinking almost immediately. She took nectar and thick with no problems other than a little pooling (liquid gathering in hollows in her throat which could in a worst case drip down into her lungs). They tried thin and she had a silent aspiration, which means some of the milk did go into her lungs and she didn’t cough or choke. She did react and Cathy could tell what had happened even though she wasn’t looking at the monitor, so she does have signals we need be aware of.
So the speech therapist said we can go from honey-thin all the way down to thick. That means adding only half as much thickener as we have been! We may not make one big jump though. I think we’ll probably go to nectar for 3-4 days then down to thick.
As good as this on was, her best on was her September 2007 barium swallow where she went all the way down to ultra-thin without aspirating. However she was just showing off to annoy the idiot GI who kept insisting on tubing her.
In other good Maria news, she did several unassisted steps forward in the walker yesterday – first time ever! She’s done assisted steps or pushed backward, but this is the first time she was forward. Go baby go!
In other news, the little ball of…sugar broke her Uncle Andy’s glasses for the third time in less than a year. I’m going to either have to switch to contacts (spend money every month for life), get a new pair of very sturdy frames (very expensive) or get several pairs of really cheap frames. Or never get within arm’s reach of her, but that’s not going to happen.
So happy to hear Maria’s Barium Swallow Test went so well.
Also, great work Maria on taking those steps forward in your walker!
Thanks, Sarah. Maria’s progress is so “two steps forward, one step back” that it’s great when she’s on an upswing.