Wednesday

Payton went down this morning for a swallow study. For this, they take her to x-ray and have her swallow a tinted formula to see whether it goes to her stomach or down the wrong way to her lungs. She's never had a bottle before and was reluctant to take it. She did manage to get a very little bit down, and it went to her lungs. So for now we need to wait for her to get a little stronger and hopefully for her vocal chords to get better before she can orally feed. What will happen now instead is they will insert a tube directly into her stomach that will feed her and get her gut moving (she's been "fed" on IV since last Wed). She can't take a feeding tube through her nose cause it severly limits her capacity to breath with her right nasal passage blocked; so this is the other alternative.
Tomorrow she goes back to the OR for them to look at her neck and the wound vac (and possibly to put in the tube to her stomach if they're able to get it scheduled). I'm hoping they're able to remove the wound vac and close her neck up as she's in pain with the wound vac. She's just not comfortable with it on.
So that's where we're at for today. We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the wonderful weather. It's hard to believe it's Memorial Day weekend already! Enjoy time with friends and family (hopefully continued good weather) and the beginning of what I call summer-cook-out food! :)
Much love, the Joneses :)