Monday, March 03, 2008

kieran gets a tune up

it's been so busy these days. sigh. but it's high time i check in and let you know we're alive and well!

tomorrow kieran's having surgery to remove his tonsils and adnoids and he's getting tubes in his ears. like most kids he's been sick pretty much all winter and it stinks. but we've been concerned for a while about him even when he's healthy, he has always been a "mouth breather" and he snores at night, things we've mentioned to the pediatrician. she never considered it an issue and despite some asthma and allergies, we weren't going to make an issue of it. but when he's sick it's much worse and not only can we hear him snoring down the hall, he stops breathing constantly throughout the night. so, about a week and a half ago we finally see an ENT (i guess snoring in and of itself doesn't merit the referral but the apnea did). he checked him out and we told him we were concerned about his adnoids and a lot of people in my family seems to have adnoid issues. apparently it doesn't really matter about the adnoids, the doctor said his tonsils are huge and barely allow air through them, at night the tissue collapses into his throat-so they're definitely out and the adnoids will go with them. kieran also had a hearing screening and we discovered that he has a lot of fluid in his ears and the doctor pronounced his results "not good" when he returned. he has conductive hearing loss and the eardrums didn't register reflexively at all. luckily, tubes should help and he should regain full hearing. we had no idea, although for over a year i was suspicious after two different basic hearing screenings when he simply stopped indicating he was hearing certain tones, but he was said to be fine. likewise, his doctor and any others that have seen him when he was sick have never mentioned his tonsils being too big.

so, tomorrow is the big day--the "grand slam" as the consulting doctor described it. we'll be waking him up early and the procedure should last 1/2 hour-1 hour. kieran is handling it well but i'm nervous about the recovery. it's an outpatient procedure and we're hoping to keep him pretty doped up when he gets out. one of the hardest things for kieran will be not eating when he wakes up before surgery tomorrow, but at least he's been promised lots of ice cream later!

think happy thoughts for us, we're not worried about the procedure itself, we know the doctor very well who's performing it and have no doubts about his skill.

i'll post an update when it's over!

4 Comments:

Blogger Donita said...

Good luck, Kieran! I will be thinking of you all in the morning.

10:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jo-
My 6yr old nephew just had the "grand slam" short of the ear tubes. It took him a week to get out of the cuttle mode, but is doing so much better. His health seems a lot better as well. Rob wishes someone had taken his tonsils and stuff out when he was little. He constantly has infections.

Hope all goes well and he's up and running around soon!
Camille

10:53 PM  
Blogger joanna said...

thanks donita, we appreciate it :)

camille-thanks for posting about your nephew, that's good to know. kieran is sick ALL the time and we think that tissue is just chronically infected. and you know, rob could still have his out! i've heard of a few adults now who have it done, granted, everyone keeps saying it's good that kieran's young and doing this. anyway, i can't wait to see if his health improves after this and he could start breathing out of his nose. yay!

5:25 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Awww. Poor Kieran...poor mom and dad! Thinking of you guys! Hope he feels better soon!

10:12 AM  

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