Our bodies are amazing vehicles... so many things happen magically without a conscience thought. Obviously we can breath air in to our lungs without air going in and out of our stomachs. We can drink a glass of water and a couple of things happen: the whole voicebox lifts when we swallow to create more space preventing aspiration, and there's a muscle/sphincter that opens allowing food and water down the correct pipe, while not filling our lungs.  

Madison had an appointment last Thursday, and things seemed only slightly better with her being able to swallow liquid. She had an x-ray swallow study (video) yesterday which confirmed a dilation procedure will be ordered which in theory should loosen the sphincter up. The study revealed another anomaly showing the voicebox is not moving nearly enough to allow swallowing liquids. 

Next steps to be determined this week, updates to follow. On another note; looking back to last summer...

​Madison volunteered at XMO (Extreme Mobility) as a counselor helping the visually impaired at the XMO summer camp. During that week campers waterboarded and tubed behind a boat, hiked, frolicked at a water park, surfed in Santa Barbara, and raced go-carts... yes, the blind too. Using earbuds with blind racers in the go-carts, counselors guided campers with walkie-talkies.                                                                                                                                    

Madison travels to Colorado later this month! She is a volunteer counselor at XMO and will be helping blind visually impaired kids during winter camp!!