New Information

I was talking to Rachel's physical therapist this morning. She explained something to me that makes perfect sense, something I never thought about before that may explain some of the difficulty we are experiencing. Rachel's shoulders (her shoulder girdle) are rounded forward. I assume this may be a result of compensating after the surgeries, or maybe because of the discomfort of reflux for all that time. In any case, her shoulder girdle is abnormally shaped. And her tongue is attached to her shoulder girdle - just as it is in the rest of us! So if her shoulder girdle protrudes forward, that means her tongue retracts back because it's connected. And if her tongue is not in a normal position, it would make sense that she needs to move it more or use more effort to get it into the correct position for eating. WOW! Eating is so much more complicated than I ever thought. I hope that with more therapy and more exposure we can help her use less effort to get the food swallowed.