Abby and her new Fundo

Hi guys,

Abby has been doing okay with the new fundo. She is still getting used to it and she gags and coughs and chokes a lot but it seems to be working. And by working, I mean she hasn't had any reflux or thrown up. But she does chipmunk her food still and since she gags so much on her food now, it seems like she is taking an extra long time to swallow the food that she chipmunks. Before the fundo, she would still chimpunk her food but she eventually swallowed it. Now, it takes FOREVER for her to swallow it. And what's worse, I am starting to find little spit ups of food on the floor. It's like when a kid (let's call this kid Eddie just for kicks) has to poop so he finds a section of the room where he can brace himself with something and then make a very intense face. Well, Abby finds a place, looks around with these huge eyes that say "I'm gagging" and then opens her mouth and lets the food fall out. The good news is that she knows to put her head down and open her mouth. Believe it or not, she didn't always do this when she gagged. She would actually put her head back, keep her mouth closed and....yep...you guessed it...swallow it again. Then she'd look at us and her face would say, "Oooooh... Nasty! Why did I just do that?!"

So anyway, it's going to take some time for Abby to get comfortable with the fundo and for all this gagging and everything to pass, but I am confident she'll get through it. She always does. In other news, she started therapy again today. Thank Goodness too because she has definitely taken a step back with her left side. She's falling all over the place still and her left hand, while better then a week ago, is still behind from where it used to be.

Now that the fundo is in, and Abby is back in therapy, I feel like we can actually think about the possibility that she will be able to have her G Tube removed some day. As Abby gets better with eating, we'll be able to slow down how much we feed her with the G Tube and then talk about taking it out. Woohoo! That will be soooooo cool.

So...let's pray that Abby learns how to eat without gagging so much and starts swallowing her food better.
You guys rock. Thanks for being there for us during her seizure scare and the fundo surgery. I will keep you posted on her progress with her eating.
Have a smashing week.

The Abby Daddy