Yum.... Barium!!!

Just a quick note to tell you how the modified barium swallow test went today: It was delicious... Just kidding! When we were taken to the room, I saw a woman preparing "food." It looked like she was squirting toothpaste in it! There were a few other people in the room that helped her, and they were all very nice. They seated me in the machine and pulled the x-ray machine by my side. Then a speech pathologist fed me the "foods" of various consistencies while someone took the x-rays. I was "fed" barium mixed with water (by a spoon, straw, and cup), barium mixed into butterscotch pudding, barium on top of fruit, barium on a cookie, and then a last sip of barium in water. Sounds delicious, doesn't it? The pudding was extremely gross and had a difficult time going down. It felt like swallowing glue! In the report it says there was "retrograde flow noted with pureed solids (pudding)." Other than that, it was not too bad! It was pretty disgusting tasting, but it didn't last long.

This was taken while swallowing liquid barium:

This was the "retrograde flow" of the pudding:

Next thing on the schedule is a phone conference with Dr. Bolognese. We are still unsure of when this will be, but it should be either tomorrow or Friday. We will let you know as soon as we hear anything. Yesterday, mom got a call from the surgery scheduler who reassured us that I had not been forgotten and that she would call at the beginning of next week to set a date! Yay!

Thank you again for all of your comments, support, and prayers!

Mackenzie and the Mathis family