Swallowing!

Whew, LONG day yesterday.  We figured it would be about an hour appointment with Dr. Hillel, including getting Les' stitches out and the swallow test.  We should know better by now!!

Leslie and Little Man came along with us this trip, since it was just the one appointment and we didn't have to be at UW until 3:15.  Leslie needed to pick up her wedding ring after getting it cleaned in the city-- so we had some fun passengers.

While waiting at UW, Leslie, Little Man and I had popped up to the 8th floor to visit Nurse Jen.  We had a fun visit with her!  Little Man, like his grandpa, thought that Nurse Jen is pretty awesome.  Les and I finally saw Dr. Hillel about 4:30  Dr. Hillel chatted with us about Les' concerns with the saliva.  Dr. thinks we need to give it more time.  He reminded Les that this was a pretty invasive surgery and it might take awhile for things to settle down in there.  In the meantime, Les will go back on the meds to help control saliva.  Dr. Hillel also told us that he was NOT able to get the swallow test for this day.  He was quite upset about this, and we appreciated that.  While sitting there, Les received the email that the x-ray swallow test will be this Wednesday (grrrrrrrrrr).  Dr. Hillel went ahead and had Les swallow a bit of water, AND HE SWALLOWED IT!  Praise the Lord.  Dr. said to go ahead and start with swallowing some clear liquids now until Wednesday.  We questioned why we even had to do the test, but Dr. said he really needs to make sure there is no leakage after this huge surgery.  OKAY.............

Dr. Hillel had something going on next door to us - he was in and out of there the entire 3 hours we were hanging around.  People coming and going, tears, phone calls.  We felt bad for him and for whoever was in that exam room.  One of the reasons everything got pushed back so much, I guess.

We then had a conversation with the Speech Pathologist.  She was pretty helpful explaining the stoma and how the new swallowing will work.  She talked with Les about HME's (Humidifier plug) which Les will need to use after his stoma is completely healed.  Finally, we had to wait for Nurse Carol to come in and take out the stitches.  The side stitches went pretty well, but the stoma stitches were very painful.  Les took a break and decided to have some painkiller put in.  Duh!!  The stoma stitches took awhile.  But now that all stitches are out, Les is turning his head side to side again, and the area looks great!

On the way home, Leslie and I grabbed a burger and sweet potato fries to eat on our ride home.  A bit down the road, Les asked for a fry.  And then another...........he was eating them....it took a long time to get them down but he did it!!  HUGE SMILE on his face. (Don't tell Dr. Hillel!!)  This morning he is again drinking a bit of water and some apple juice.

We are thankful for these small things.