Swallowing

It's been too long since my last update to try to tell you everything that's happened, but I'll shoot for a quick recap.  

Food School: Cody has made a lot of slow and steady progress.  As of today, he is chewing and swallowing small pieces of French fry, rice, and chicken nugget.  He chewed and swallowed one piece of hotdog yesterday, but today they pulled back to just chewing the hotdog until he's consistently swallowing the chicken within 30 seconds.  He made a lot of progress with that from yesterday to today.  They have added vegetables to a session. He is currently working on peas and carrots.  As of today he is holding both in his mouth for 5 seconds.  Cody was previously eating table texture carrots at home, but he began "packing" - technical term for holding or chewing food without swallowing for an extended period. We were going up to 10 minutes on a single bite of carrots.  So, they changed the type of carrot from frozen (steamed) to canned.  They went back to square one with touching the carrots to lips, etc, so we are basically starting from scratch with carrot.  He has also worked on rice in outpatient, but was also having some issues with swallowing, so they went back a few steps on that one too.  He's back to swallowing it now.  

Last week we had Cody's "goal meeting" with his treatment team.  John was able to come to meeting via Zoom.  The team agree that Cody is already making a lot of good progress. The goal is for him to gain 8 new table texture foods before we leave.  He already eats 3 table texture fruits and they will add 8 more starches, proteins, and vegetables.  He may be able to exceed the goal, but they feel that 8 is achievable. There may come a time later in treatment where we need to decide whether to pursue adding more foods or increasing the bite size.  Currently, I think we would/will choose to increase the bite size over adding variety.  I expect that we will not be throwing away our blenders when we leave food school this time.  I think he will be eating a mix of purees for volume/calories and table texture.  The "bites" of table texture are SO small at present and I don't see how at this rate he would be eating enough of any table texture foods to fill him up at a meal.  All I can do is pray that this next stage of eating when we get home is not MORE complicated than it already is... but I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be, at least for awhile.  I think it's pretty possible when I get home that I will need to prepare both puree and table texture foods.  I just hope doing both does not feel like my work load is doubled.  They have not mentioned yet when we will begin working on table textures at home during breakfast and dinner or on the weekend.  

Outside of food school: We had a fun visit with Boss and CC (my parents) this weekend.  They stayed with us Friday night through Sunday at lunchtime.  They showered Cody with gifts and attention.  We went shopping and to Fernbank on Saturday.  Cody even sat through the IMax movie, although we were disappointed that it's not in 3D right now due to Covid.  His favorites parts were NatureQuest (the kids area) and the science area. 

Our everyday life is pretty repetitive and mostly boring.  I've settled into a routine of audiobooks and crossword puzzles while Cody is in his sessions with the therapists.  Cody is firmly addicted to Switch and will have a hard time transitioning back to the real world of going to school full time.  We work on "homework" during each break.  We both still hate it, but Cody has been less argumentative about it the last couple days, at least.  Our least favorite is still phonics.  I dislike being the teacher, because I take all the blame if he misses any questions on his tests at the end of the week.  We come home for lunch on our "long break" from the time Cody finishes his 11:45 session (sometimes as early as a few minutes after 12, it's a puree meal for volume) until 2:15 when we leave for Marcus.  The last session is at 2:45, but traffic can be unpredictable.  

Even in the "big city" our world has been made smaller, in a good way, by the people we see and places we visit regularly.  There's the guy walking his two huskies at the condo, the lady who walks to work always dressed in a skirt and ski hat after dropping off her child at the preschool at Marcus, the ladies at the UPS store who greet Cody by name while he hides behind my back, the woman in her athleisure wear and Madewell belt bag she wears crossbody on her way to and from the Starbucks on Briarcliff - not to mention the playground, Target, Publix, Starbucks (multiple), and other stores we do not need GPS for anymore.  We are fully "settled in" and enjoying our circumstances as much as possible. You will never convince me to live the city life after my adventure trying to park at Trader Joe's, but I can appreciate many aspects of Atlanta living.