Swallow Test

He passed the test!!! What a relief! He was finally able to enjoy a little bit of water, Jello and some broth (actually, he said the broth was not enjoyable at all, but hopefully still better than nothing). He has to take it very slowly and give his stomach a couple days to adjust to the clear liquid diet before he can eat any real food. For the time being, he has to sit completely upright in a chair when he drinks, and then has to stay upright for at least 60 minutes. He ordered some broth for dinner tonight, but then was too tired to contemplate being out of bed for an hour so he didn't bother.

The surgeon said there's a chance they may send him home on Thursday, which is earlier than the original estimate of two weeks. Frankly, it scares the heck out of me because while he is doing so much better than even a couple days ago, he's still experiencing a lot of discomfort (pain), still has some tubes to drain his incisions, and still requires a ton of respiratory therapy. I'm also worried about how hard it will be for him and the kids to have him home, but not able to do the things he usually does. Who knows how long it will be before he's up for some of the Dad and boys wrestling matches that were a regular feature around here. (I can't really say I miss those too much. The end of the match was usually signaled by one of the following happening: 1) Ian crying; 2) Miles crying; 3) both boys crying simultaneously; or, 4) Dave's end-of-match lecture which always went something like this, "You can never, ever, ever punch a man in the penis.")

Of course, scary or not, I would be ecstatic to have Dave back home sooner than anticipated.

I'll keep you all posted when there's some new news (guess that's a little redundant).