Good news for Rye!

It's a small step, but a step nevertheless.

Ever since Rye was diagnosed with his condition, he's been restricted from drinking regular liquids (water, milk, etc) as they are too thin and travel down his throat too fast. The result of that is that the liquid will aspirate (re: get stuck in his throat) and lead to sickness, infections, etc. We end up making drinks for him that are mainly water, Propel power (lemon flavor) and a bunch of thickeners called Simply Thick. The resulting beverage is the thickness of honey.

To you and me, it's kind of gross. To him, it's pretty much all he's known for the past two years or so. It is kind of a drag when we forget to bring his drink along when we're out, or when he sees Haley have a hot chocolate and he can't join in, but otherwise, he handles it pretty well.

Yesterday he had a swallow study done at Children's Hospital. They fire up the ol' x-ray and take pictures as he eats. Depending on what they see, they diagnose one way or another. The last time they did it, he had made no progress and was still required to drink the honey thick liquids. We were bummed, as the surgery was supposed to help with his swallowing. Dr. E told us to be patient and we'd see progress soon enough.

After the x-ray yesterday, it turns out that Rye did make progress and they were able to move him up to nectar thick liquids! We are super excited for that as it is a step in the right direction. Marci said Rye asked if that meant he could have regular ice cream (his ice cream is special as when regular ice cream melts, it is too thin) and she told him not yet. That kind of bums me out as any 5 year old should be able to eat ice cream, right?

Anyway, we're happy with the progress and hope that he continues along this path.