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 . . .