Well, sort of. If you can imagine a bite or two of Jell-O, or some chocolate pudding and water through a straw, then it qualifies! Carson has told me that he has literally dreamed of eating Jell-O, and today his dream came true. The speech therapist was confident in his ability to swallow and gave him the above food. When he ate the chocolate pudding, his eyes rolled up in his head for a couple seconds in ecstasy! They still have his feeding tube in pending good consistency handling soft food, but we hope this is taken out soon. They also insisted that Carson feed himself, which he did successfully, though his finger dexterity is still fairly crude. Finally, the Occupational Therapist then had him clean his upper body with cleansing wipes. Overall, the day was exhausting for him, but rewarding. They are consistently monitoring his blood pressure when placed in a wheel chair and he often gets waves of nausea. Some of the biggest potential obstacles continue to be any respiratory illness, accidentally vomiting and then aspirating, thereby increasing his chance for pneumonia, and blood clots due to the sedentary nature of the injury. We are waiting to see if he will be admitted into the University of Utah Inpatient Rehab Unit, (he is on an orthopedic trauma unit there currently) or transferred to another facility. More to come on this by the end of the week. As always, we appreciate those of you who write, pray, and inquire of his well-being.
Stephen and Camille Tueller
