All I Want for Christmas is for James to Learn to Swallow
That’s a simple request, isn’t it?
If you have been following James’ story, you know that he has been in the hospital on multiple occasions for respiratory distress. We’re pretty sure all of those hospital stays could have been avoided if he could just do one simple thing: swallow. Because he is unable to suck or swallow, he is unable to eat by mouth, and he is unable to manage his own secretions. When these secretions build up in his nose and throat, he has a hard time breathing. Sometimes if the secretions go the wrong way, it ends up in his lungs and causes pneumonia.
So, whenever somebody asks me what I want for Christmas, all I want is for James to learn how to swallow. I didn’t need to be taught how to swallow. I just knew how to do it. How do you teach someone to do something that just comes natural to most people?
