We're still dealing with the latest news on Hannah. She went to East Tennessee Children's Hospital today for a "swallow study." Basically they fed her barium in various consistencies to watch on X-ray how she swallowed stuff. More details will come from the study, but the preliminary results show that she is not protecting her airway. That means when she eats, or when she has reflux, stuff can easily go in her lungs. This can lead to pneumonia or suffocation.

I had assumed that if the malacia was bad enough, they might have to do surgery to correct it. I was wrong, because it's not JUST extra tissue. It's also a "floppy airway." It will be up to the specialist we'll see on Friday, but our pediatrician has said the likeliest course of action will be to put in a gastric tube (which means they'll put a tube directly into her stomach) and then a Nissen tie (which will tie off her esophagus so that nothing can go back up her esophagus). In other words, they'll tie off her stomach so that she can't choke from either end, and the result will be that she will have to get all her nourishment through the tube.

Needless to say, we're a bit distraught over this. We have to immediately put the nasogastric tube back in and feed her that way until they decide. She will go in the hospital on Feb. 10 to have a laryngoscopy and bronchoscopy (they'll look more deeply into her lungs), which will require anesthetic. While she's under for that, they'll likely do the other surgery at the same time.

Hannah needs serious prayers. We all do.