Baseball outing & a swallow test

The fun part of my last week was this baseball game with a couple of friends. They picked me up Tuesday and drove me to Rome, GA for the Braves High-A minor league team game with the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Mets organization.

It was just about a perfect evening! The weather was so pleasant and the company was great. And on the drive home we happened to top a ridge with a scenic pull-off place just as the sun was setting.

The perfect way to top off a wonderful evening!

Then Thursday was back to medical stuff. A swallow test at a downtown hospital imaging center.

The technical name is "fluoroscopy esophogram complete double contrast." The name sounds intimidating but the procedure was easy.

I had a couple of swallows of fizzy, pleasant drink to put gas in my stomach. And then I stood in front of an x-ray machine while I took two swallows of a whitish liquid. Not-thick, pleasant-tasting, easy-to-swallow liquid. And they scanned while I was swallowing.

Then was the weird part. I was standing against what turned out to be a table, I just leaned back on it and it dropped back VERY SLOWLY with me on it until I was flat on my back. The techs had me lie on my side and take two more swallows of the whitish liquid, an even thinner version. Another scan, one on each side. And finally I had to swallow a pill with a drink of water.

The whole thing took maybe 15 minutes. Maybe.

I got the result yesterday. I only have some acid reflux, which the pulmonologist had already prescribed a pill for. The swallow part assessment was this: "Swallowing: Normal swallowing function with normal oral transit time."

But I don't know if the reflux is connected with my wheezing. Maybe the August plumonary function and walk test will give some insight?

Tomorow I see my palliative care doc. That should be an easy visit since things are going well overall.

Once again I'll end this post by saying how grateful I am. Even though I don't feel good every day, and some days are rough, overall I'm doing well. I'm able to be more and more active. I've even had some flowers and flower seeds planted. I'm able to get out and water them daily.

I'm hopeful to be able to continue doing that.

And I'm hopeful for more outings. I have a big one scheudled in July.

And I'm just plain ol' grateful for more and more good days.

And for so much support from you, my friends and family.

I'm feeling lots of gratitude as I end this post.