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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Surgery postponed, for now . . .

We are going to get a referral for Andrew to have a sleep study done first. We as parents want to be confident we are doing the right thing. Tonsil and adenoid removal surgery, while quite common, is still considered a major surgery. He will be put under general anesthesia and there is a small risk for bleeding -- but it's there nonetheless. The biggest thing (for us) would be keeping Andrew still in the recovery process because he's so hyperactive. That, and making sure he gets enough fluids are our biggest concerns.

So, we wait. The Pediatric Neurology department will be calling me back once they get the official referral from ENT. Apparently they don't normally do sleep studies on kids? From what I can gather online, it is quite common elsewhere to have the sleep study done first and maybe I'm just a proactive parent, but I don't want them to cut body parts out (regardless of "necessity" of tonsils and adenoids) if we don't have to!

My thoughts for doing the sleep evaluation: he doesn't snore all night. He is not a mouth breather (like the typical kids who have this surgery are prior to having it). He has never had an ear infection and his hearing is just fine. He doesn't talk like he has a cold all the time.

He may be hyperactive, but is that just his personality or is it related to sleep deprivation? Some kids just have large tonsils and that doesn't mean they need to be removed.

S0, let's say they do the sleep study and find out that he does have disrupted sleep and his oxygen stats drop and he stops breathing "X" amount of times in an hour -- I will feel MUCH better with proceeding with the surgery than I do now. There's too much uncertainty.

Wish us luck, and thanks for following our journey. There's always something going on with us, it seems . . .

1 comment:

Catie said...

They don't usually do sleep studies on kids up here either. Just as a word of warning don't let them talk you into surgery if he really doesn't need it. Oxygen levels can drop up to 10% (roughly 86-90% saturation) simply when kids are sleeping because they are laying on their stomachs or resting so soundly. I got nervous during Lex's sedated hearing test when his level dropped to 85% and the nurse came in and told me it was normal. I hope whatever happens you guys know you are doing what's best for him. (Oh and if he has surgery and is coming out of it slow I highly recommend a pack n play. Lex stumbled around for 4 hours after waking up and it was the only way we could contain him and make sure he didn't hurt himself.)