Good News All Around for Gwen

We are pleased to report that Gwendolyn had a rather productive day at the hospital yesterday.

The most important short-term update is that she did well in her swallow study.

After an initial melt-down had us concerned that it would be a dud altogether, Gwen settled in and was ready to sip away. They began by having her drink liquids that were thickened to the consistency of nectar. Unfortunately, that didn’t go smoothly. There were a couple of instances where the fluid penetrated her airway, although they were pretty confident that it never went past her vocal cords.

However, next they thickened her fluid to the consistency of syrup. This time, Gwendolyn passed with flying colors. In fact, she did so well that they didn’t even try her at the next thickest consistency (which would have been honey) because they were confident the results couldn’t get any better. Ironically, honey consistency is the level that Gwen was at the last time she was allowed to inject fluids orally so she’s making some serious progress.

As a result, Ms. Gwendolyn Marie is officially off her food pump again. From now on, she’ll be using a Sippy just like her sister, well except for the whole thickened fluid part!

;)

Gwen was so excited that she followed up her swallow study by downing a full six ounces of milk followed immediately by a six ounce water chaser. By the time we got in the car to go home, she was so tuckered out by her drinking exploits that she feel right asleep (although she kept a tight grasp on her cup just to make sure it didn’t go anywhere).

Needless to say, Mom and Dad are so excited by this advancement and we know that Gwen will continue to make progress. Hopefully by her next swallow study (likely taking place in a year) she will advance to the stage where she won’t need the fluids thickened at all and we can lose her Micky button permanently!

Gwen also got her new braces yesterday but we’re going to table that update until later in the week when we can get some good shots of them in action during her next P.T. session. Still, we’ll just say that we think it is also quite the positive development!!!

As for Braelyn, she was pretty confused this morning. She couldn’t quite figure out which cup was hers and which belonged to her sister. Needless to say, she hasn’t had to deal with her sister drinking from a cup all that often.

A quick shout out to Aunt Liz for the cool cupcake knit hat Braelyn is wearing in the photo above. You can’t quite see the whole thing the way Braelyn has tilted her head here but the top is complete with sprinkles and a cherry on the pink frosting… It is VERY cute indeed.

Okay, stay tuned for the update on Gwen’s new braces…