Normal

Every morning when we wake up and come downstairs, the overnight nurse fills us in on how Garren did overnight. Yesterday morning she told us that Garren did something new...he talked in his sleep. She said it looked like he was having a dream. He said "Mom" then reached up his arms in the air like he was giving a hug.

I thought about this, and wondered if he can run and jump and play in his dreams. Later, after Garren woke up, Nancy told him what the nurse had said. She asked him if he had had a dream. He said "Yes." She asked him what he was dreaming about. He said "I dreamed I was normal."

We finally got an appointment with the speech therapist who is able to do vital stim. It was an interesting visit for sure. She evaluated Garren, asking him to try different things. Finally she determined that he is not a candidate for vital stim. Vital stim, according to her, will not make someone swallow who is not already swallowing. It will help make a weak swallow stronger.

Frustrating, disappointing, confusing - that describes this whole swallowing thing for us. We get conflicting information from doctors, therapists, and well meaning nurses. There seem to be so many opinions and ideas about how to handle this with Garren. We are not going to give up though. We will continue to search for and get Garren the best help we can get. And hopefully in the mean time we'll get some clear direction from someone.