Hunter's Swallow Study

Yesterday Hunter had his swallow study. The immediate results showed that he did have some trouble eating. They found that he will require very thick formula (about the thickness of honey) once he is able to get back on a bottle.

It's going to be a while before they try to get him on the bottle. Right now he is on a high flow nasal cannula which has a flow of 3 liters. Nurse says that they should get that down to 2 liters before they give the bottle another try. The high flow of his oxygen is blowing air into his belly, if they try to feed him now it will just make the aspirations worse. Then when he is able to take a bottle they will start with very small feedings (5 ml) and increase them over time until they can do a full meal (45 ml) from the bottle.

If this all sounds like it's going to take a while, you are right. Tonight, Nurse estimated that optimistically we should expect Hunter to be in the hospital for at least four more weeks. He's been in the hospital for 11 weeks now, so I guess another four isn't so much.