Another homecoming!?!!

The plan is that his 40th day (March 3rd) in the NICU will be his last! Dr. R has done all of the discharge paperwork for Evan and as long as he has another good night tonight we will be bringing him home tomorrow. With all of our home internet issues over the last week- we have some catching up to do!

Evan continued to have 1 spell a day, only after eating and during a burp. The rest of the day he was perfectly normal. We were able to get a swallow study done in Radiology yesterday morning to see if we could figure anything out. We had an awesome Radiologist who also specializes in peds and preemies, when I saw her personal red glittered lead fluoroscopy vest I knew I would love her! Evan did a great job drinking the barium, such a rockstar. They started out with breast milk consistency barium and within a few gulps it was immediately apparent that he was aspirating the liquid up his nasal passage and down his trachea instead of going just down the esophagus. They then had him drink barium with the consistency of nectar (not the taste though) and he did better, but not great- still aspirating. The honey consistency seemed to do the trick. After a feeding consult with speech therapy we now have to bottle feed breast milk to Evan the consistency of honey, or sludge as I like to call it.

This is a bummer since Evan is the best at breastfeeding :( This is going to make the bottle his primary feeder for the time being, we are hoping he will grow out of this quickly but will have to follow up with speech therapy as outpatients. The good news is that ever since he started drinking this sludge he has not had any spells! The Rad was very happy that this was caught early since Evan for the most part, handled the fluid aspirations very well, but in time could have led to pneumonia or other respiratory issues.

Payton is also going to have a swallow study this week to determine if he is identical to Evan- and why wouldn't he be!