Get Well Clarkie!

Hey team

A massively huge day today…Aaron can now swallow food and as of tonight is on a REAL FOOD diet!

Mum drove the 2 hours from our home town, Whangarei, to take Aaron to his appointment at Greenlane Hospital, where the specialists work from (thanks ma).

It’s quite hard to comprehend as we always thought it would be a very slow process starting with puree and building from there.  However as with everything our Clarkie lad seems to do, he blew ‘em outa the water.  The test involved a video x-ray of his swallowing, following all stages to track it’s course down into his stomach.  The worst case scenario is that substances go into lungs which is the huge worry as it causes pneumonia.  And quite frankly Clarkie has had enough pneumonia to last another 40 years

They tested various thicknesses and basically concluded that he is so much better than the last test in the US that he can go full noise with food.  They even suggested that he could call into the cafe for a bite to eat on the way home!

The feeding tube (“peg”) will stay for another 3 weeks to unsure that everything does go down well and then they will pull that sucker out and I might even have a glass of bubbles myself to celebrate.

Today has been a memorable day as this was one of Aaron biggest self selected goals – getting rid of that nasty feeding tube and eating.  So massive effort little brother.  I think I’ve already said it this week with the crutch lark but dang, I’ll say it again…Very, very proud of you and your constant positive outlook and determination.  You’re a walking wonder.

I drove Aaron up Mt Eden in the weekend (for those in the US, don’t fret, it’s really just a big hill) and we had a very cool time on a glorious blue sky day.  I’ve attached some photos.  Behind Aaron is the beautiful Waitemata Harbour with the main island in the background, ‘Rangitoto’.

Happy New Year to you all

Megan