Barium swallow study

So, Harlie had the barium swallow and upper GI today. My sister-in-law, Nancy, went with me since Tom had to work. The tests went GREAT! I couldn’t believe my ears when the doctor said she didn’t have a TE fistula and everything looked… get this… NORMAL!!!! I told them that was the first time I had heard the term “normal” about Harlie.

And she did so great during the study, too. They put her on this stretcher type thing and then wrapped tape around the stretcher and her from her chest to her feet. They took an x-ray, and then they had to restrain her hands up over her head. So then they wrapped tape around her head and hands. So all you could see was her face and belly. She looked like she was in a cocoon.

Can you believe that she hardly cried at all? I just couldn’t believe how tolerant she was. She was so cooperative! While she was all taped up, they put a small bottle in her mouth and she started sucking and swallowing!! We watched it on a TV monitor. You could see her trach, pacemaker wires, the band on her pulmonary artery and of course, her swallowing. Then they put a tube down her nose and fed her more of the solution. They rolled the stretcher around so she was on her side – like a chicken rotisserie. After just a few minutes, the doctor said all looks normal.

YAY!!! Tomorrow we go to the feeding clinic to go over everything. We are crossing our fingers that we will get to start to feed her by bottle very soon. I know it won’t be bottle only, but I would really be happy with just a few minutes at each feeding. Well, it is getting late, so I have to go. I hope you are all well.

Thanks for checking in!
-Christy