Theo came home tonight! And we have a potential answer. He did a barium swallow study today, and the speech pathologist noticed that he was close to having his drink go down the wrong pipe. Apparently some kids, particularly those who have had laryngomalacia, can have trouble with accidentally sending their food/drink down the wrong pipe. If he did have food/drink go down the wrong pipe, that could’ve caused a throat infection, which could be what he’s experiencing now. The only problems with this theory are that (1) the throat culture did not grow bacteria and (2) our doctor came in at the end of the day to say that he thinks that the swallow study was influenced by the fact that he just had surgery and, therefore, we can’t rely on this conclusion.

But guess what…a bunch of really scary tests came back negative. Also, the cardiologist did an echo and confirmed that he *does* have a heart murmur (which didn’t show up until now because apparently some heart murmurs show up in toddlerhood!!), but she said it was common and nothing to worry about.

So now that we’ve ruled out a bunch of scary stuff, I’m finally breathing a sigh of relief. The swallow study may not have been accurate, and this may not be the *exact* diagnosis. We’ll have to work with the pulmonologist going forward to get to the bottom of this. But for now, I feel much better that we’ve been able to rule things out, and I’m SO very happy to have him home!

Thank you for thinking of us!!! ❤ It’s been quite an ordeal…