Swallow Test

Kyle had a barium swallow test on the 15th because of his long term difficulty with swallowing. I think the speech therapist wanted to see if he has reflux and if he aspirates.

Kyle has explained several times to his doctors that solids get stuck in his throat so he pushes it down with three hard swallows and a sip of water. Many times he ends up vomiting because the food will not go down no matter how hard he tries to swallow. The speech therapist breifly mentioned that his trachea is partially paralyzed. I haven't confirmed this with the head & neck surgeon yet but obviously something is wrong because his swallowing isn't normal.

His speech therapist doesn't want him to swallow water with food. She feels Kyle could possibly aspirate the food and water. She says water slides down too fast so she wants him to only swallow foods that are moist, or swallow with a thicker type liquid such as a smoothie so the food and liquid would go down slower. Kyle didn't agree with anything the speech therapist said; even though it makes sense but he's the one that has to deal with it.

Anyway, the xray did show food getting stuck in his throat and it did take him about 3 hard swallows to get most of the food down without any water to push it down. Luckily, we did not notice any reflux.