I grew up in a house with miles of woods and a stream as a backyard. I’ve loved the sight, sound, look, and presence of birds all my life. All kinds. Ornithology is the scientific study of birds, though the word ornithology is a hilly being for tongue and pen, and is unlike the grace of most birds in sound and shape.

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the Red-Tail Hawk, whose voice is one of the grandest offered by nature, and swallows. All swallows. Barn swallows, Cliff  swallows, Tree swallows, White-rumped swallows. Generally speaking, swallows (Barn Swallows are my favorite), have around six to eight inch wingspans and fly at speeds ranging from 30 to 40 miles an hour.

They dazzle me, so you’ll need little if any effort to understand the excitement I felt when I saw a mobile lab vehicle that was there to conduct studies on swallows. It said so on the side of the lab.      

“Mobile Modified Barium Swallow Studies” 

The lab was parked behind a one-story building and no more than 20 yards from a nearby river and a tree-lined walking trail running alongside, filled with birds!  

I’d never heard of Barium swallows. I figured they had to be beautiful. I walked towards the lab’s truck to learn more when I noticed the one-story building it was parked next to happened to be a medical rehabilitation clinic.

It was just now when I “heard” a knock on the door to my being.  It was reality, wouldn’t you know.

Medical!  Barium swallow studies! Think medical!

I looked them up, and none other than Johns Hopkins Medicine let me know a barium swallow study “is a special type of imaging test that uses barium and X-rays to create images of your upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract.” 

Barium itself is a soft white metal of the alkaline earth group.

Granted, I’ll never see a Barium swallow fly. That said, knowing barium swallows strengthen medicine’s hand is a beautiful reality.

(Can’t fly 30 to 40 miles per hour, though!)