1 Month Post-op!

Carter had his surgery exactly 4 weeks ago, today. What a month! Those first couple of weeks..UGH! I had this constant nagging montra in my head "What did we just do to our little guy?" He was in a lot of pain, refluxing, meds every couple of hours, suctioning, no sleep, and lots of crying. Like I said.."What did we just do?"

But after those first two weeks it was like a switch flipped. The pain subsided.We winged him off of his coma inducing pain meds. His adult dose of reflux medicine kicked into high gear. He was happy again! So it was just that stinkin' food aversion. The ENT surgeon kept reiteriting "He has to eat, a lot, orally, and now!" The muscle in his throat, WANTS to close back up. We are trying to fight against what the body wants to do. He has to eat, now! The pediatrician at the hospital, said that she has never seen a baby, go 8 months without eating orally, and then drink from a bottle, so don't even try the bottle. Initially he saw food and he would gag and retch. After a couple days he only gagged if we touch the food to his mouth. Each day was a slight improvement. I kept pushing the bottle, because he seemed slightly more interested in it then in a sippy cup. The whole issue was that he was scared to swallow. He knew it was going to hurt. It just got to the point, that I had to force him to keep the bottle in his mouth until some drops dripped out, and he was able to see that it wasn't painful. This helped, and he would drink one or two sucks and then gag, because frankly formula is GROSS! So Karl tried putting a small drop of choclate syrup in a bottle, and he did a ton better. We did change to just putting a sprinkle of sugar in each feeding, and it took just a couple of days for him to realize that

EATING IS FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

He is now a champ bottle drinker!!! He loves it! He is eating 100% of of his food orally!!! In just 4 weeks!!! He is one stubborn cuss. The only thing we use the tube for is to give him his meds, frankly because its easy. Ang get this...he lost quite a bit of weight after the surgery. But, between week 2 and then end of week 3, HE GAINED OVER A POUND!! We are still working on solids. He WILL not touch baby food without gagging. But, he is kind of eating pureed regular food! Kind of...

We had a swallow study on Monday. I was nervous beyond nervous. We have never had a really great swallow study. I swear I was like a Dwight sticking his hand out for a breath mint every time he heard the Windows startup sound. Except for me, I would hear the word swallow study, and instant get a pit in my stomach. And this swallow study was a make or break us moment. If it wasn't a good test....I don't even want to think about it. Anyway, it was the most BEAUTIFUL swallow study on the face of the earth. Serioulsy, BEAUTIFUL!!! He had the slightest lag, but as soon as he swallowed again it went down. The OT said that for a baby that has only been swallowing for essentially 2 weeks, that is totally normal. She also gave him some baby food mixed with barium, and although he wasn't thrilled, he DID swallow it.

So he is doing great! He is happy, gaining weight, and eating!