First Meatball Toss

Today Caine ate 3 meatballs during our Meatball Toss game. They were about the size of a nickel. We told him to sit, and he caught it in his mouth. It did not go to the back of the throat (which would make the whole process easier) but he did manage to get them down. It took maybe 5 minutes for each meatball and his mouth got very frothy and slimy. BUT, he got most of each meatball down! We only tried three because some of the saliva started to get a pink tint and we didn't want to irritate the wound any more. We also gave him some water in a syringe, but our syringe was giving us trouble so we stopped. We didn't want to put too much pressure on the syringe trying to get the water though and have it jet towards his throat and him choke.

Dr. King was optimistic (finally a doctor who is on Caine's side!) about starting the feeding early. The earlier the better for watering and feeding. He said in most of the studies he read, the feeding tube was out in three weeks. Our goal is 3 weeks from today, which is January 26, 2010. Caine has a follow up appointment tomorrow to make sure that his tongue is healing properly.

The SouthTown Newspaper is also coming over tomorrow evening to interview us and take some pictures of Caine. I sent Caine's story to an editor at the SouthTown and she called us today wanting to write an article about Caine. We are so happy and grateful for her because now people will think about shredders in a whole new way. And Caine will look so cute in his blue tee shirt!

I set up a PayPal account today for people who are interested in donating to help Caine's Cause. Donations will go mostly towards the feeding tube food right now, but as he is weaned off of the food, the donations will go towards veterinarian visits and follow up appointments.

Thank you so much for your concern...keep cheer leading!