Food

Wikipedia informs me that “deglutition” is the scientific word for swallowing. Huh. You learn something new every day.

We had an appointment with the feeding clinic at Bloorview earlier this week, which explains why I’m parsing Wikipedia entries on swallowing and dysphagia. You may remember that Gavin continues to suffer from slight dysphagia. (swallow difficulty.) His last hurdle is thin liquid. Although it is counter-intuitive, thin liquids like water or apple juice are actually the most difficult things to swallow with Gavin’s condition.

We have now been home for almost four weeks. Our monthaversary is this Friday, and we will celebrate Gavin’s many achievements since our return home.

He now has full-blown sooty eyelashes, pretty bushy brows, and has started to grow a sprinkling of hair on his head. (And oddly, on his forehead, but I’m willing to accept a little fuzz-face for the time being.) He now walks completely unaided and can easily stoop to pick things up and stand up again. We have been on two weekend trips to the family cottage and have (somehow) survived four three-hour car rides. He speaks more clearly and with more expression every day, packing new words into his vocabulary hourly. At weigh-in last week he topped the 14 kg mark for the first time. He is doing well with the oxygen he is on and has remained healthy. (Knocking furiously on wood) He has started toilet training! (That’s a whole other post.) He has started making his own platelets. We finally felt comfortable enough to take the side-rail off of his crib and converted it into a “big-boy bed.”

Good news. Yesterday Gavin passed his second feeding study, and is now cleared to eat certain textures! For the moment we are limited to thin purées and thickened liquids, but we are all ridiculously over the moon about this new development. Both Craig and I had suspected for some weeks that Gavin was capable of swallowing something, but because of the danger of aspiration, couldn’t allow him to try anything at home.

I often ponder the human relationship with food. Our omnivorous diet is astounding when you think about it. We eat pretty much everything out there, and each culture scorns the dietary choices of other tribes. (“You eat horse? Eeeew!” “You eat pork? Barf.” etc.) Who was the first person to have a crack at a lobster or a chili pepper, and think, huh, not bad! Life would be a lot easier as a koala, munching away on eucalypt leaves and never having to stand with the fridge door ajar going, hmmmm, now what do I feel like eating?