Tuesday, February 12, 2008

ENT Visit, UPDATE!

This morning was Elizabeth's consult with the specialist. She was psyched to meet yet ANOTHER new doctor! She's a crazy one.
Bob stayed home with Dylan, THANK GOD! One less thing to worry about.

OK, the visit...
The whole exam took about 2 minutes because as soon as he looked into her throat he said, "Oh yeah, those are very big."
In fact, the ENT said that when Elizabeth sticks out her tongue, the tonsils come together so much that they virtually occlude her throat entirely.
So it's a surgery for us.

They are going to set up the time at the hospital (it will be soon) and let us know when to show up.
It's still 50/50 whether she'll have to stay overnight or not. Either way is fine with me.
He said her symptoms and her large tonsils are "classic" sleep apnea.
In the meantime, her breathing at night is terrible. She snorts and snarfles. She wakes up in the middle of the night. This TOTALLY explains all her bad dreams!
Hopefully all that will be over once the surgery is done. At least, that's the idea.

And, just for contrast, I peeped Dylan's tonsils the other day...
Huge.
This may be a family trait! Sigh.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you should get him checked out now and they'll offer a 2-1 surgery dealio?

Tell me where to send the money for Elizabeth's recuperating ice cream feast extravaganza.

eaf said...

Surgery... bleh. Sleeping through the night peacefully, hurray!

I'm sure she'll be just fine. Kind of nice that it's so easy to fix. Besides, what's a pregnancy without a good dose of stress, right?

Jessica said...

Yes, sleeping all night will be grand! Maybe then we can reclaim the middle portion of our bed!!!!

And pregnancy for me without stress has never happened.
With Elizabeth we moved, a lot. In state, out of state. A lot a lot a lot.
With Dylan, my dad passed away...
And now with ... he who is named but you cannot know yet ... just a little surgery! Feh.

Oh and tomorrow is my nasty nasty glucose screening...who volunteered to do that for me? Mer? Anne Marie?

I haven't yet established the Elizabeth Ardis' Tonsils (and possibly Adenoids) Memorial Ice Cream Feast Extravaganza Fund, but I will!

Anonymous said...

Can you tell us what names you cast aside? I'm always looking for good ones. And I'd offer to take the glucose test for you, I probably can't taste the nasty anyway.

Anne Marie said...

I know this has been awfully stressful, but imagine the more restful nights for ALL of you after she has her surgery. If only I lived closer and could sneak in to do your glucose test for you! That would be one little way I could possibly help with a teeeny bit of your stress this pregnancy. Good luck and keep us posted as you find out more.

Jessica said...

I had a big working list of names...
For the boys, we vetoed...
Abram
Braden
Gannon
Henry
Jackson (too trendy)
Matthew
Nathan
Patrick
Zachary
and Vito, of course.

And probably a lot more!

Jessica said...

In all honesty this will be the best thing ever!
She will sleep better at night, be less crabby during the day, hopefully when she sleeps she will STAY asleep, which means she will STAY IN HER OWN ROOM!
and fairies and angels will dance all around when THAT happens!
It's gonna be good.

Anonymous said...

Since you discarded it, can I express my opinion that I'm glad you discarded Gannon? I reserve the right, however, to withdraw my statement in the event you go back to Gannon, in which case it's awesome.

And your list is of no help. Two of your names are Jewish (and my Jewish husband hates Jewish names, as he knows somebody with all of them, it seems), one is my cousin's name, and Vito is just Vito. We have considered Nathan, but don't think Nathan Newman sounds good. Too many N's.

Jessica said...

"can I express my opinion that I'm glad you discarded Gannon?"

absolutely! That was a Bob pick which he wanted for Dylan two years ago, obviously he lost that first battle and the second one as well! I actually have a cousin (of some degree) who has a son named Gannon. It is a family last name. A good Irish name. Just not for me and mine.
We shall not be changing the agreed upon name for the baby as I have purchased an EMBROIDERED item using the name. Which as you know makes the name a total lock.

Nathan Newman is a bit nerdy too.
If and when you do get in the "family way" here are my suggested non-Hebrew boy names for you...
Christopher
James
Thomas
Jose
and of course
Paul

Chris said...

Well, the problem with Gannon is you'd have to have a Link and/or Zelda, and that just is too much of a headache.

Amy, as long as you ban "Alfred" I think you'll be fine.

Chris said...

If and when you do get in the "family way" here are my suggested non-Hebrew boy names for you...
Christopher, James, Thomas, Jose, and of course Paul


I'll cast a vote for Christopher. :-)

Jose? Really?

I tried to get Elizabeth to let me make Marcus' middle name "Hannibal", but she protested because she has no head for history. All she could think of was the frickin' serial killer character and not the actual historical person. Plus, you can also call him "Han" for short. heh. Anyway...

Jessica said...

Say what you will about Jose, but it's decidedly non-Hebrew. And I think it's the No. 1 boys name in Arizona last year.
So bully for that too.

Jessica said...

Just kidding, Jose was fifth most popular in Arizona in 2006. No. 1 was Angel...assuredly pronounced Ohn-hell.

Anonymous said...

Out, out, out and out. Good try though.

I cannot even tell you how many times I say, "How about Paul?", and then the photo of Paul Newman's sombrero wearing head on a bottle of salsa pops into my head and I say, "Oh, yeah, that won't work."

We have one boys name ONE that we agree on, and it is not even 100% for me because it is the name of my cousin (whom I'm not a fan of), my uncle, my great-grandmother, a fourth cousin, and two great-uncles on both parents' sides.

And now a cousin who I could see actually using that name is pregnant, and I will die, just DIE, if he steals the name for my mythical son.

Jessica said...

Dang!
I thought I had it for sure with Jose.
How about Daniel, Alexander or Robert?
You're gonna have to go Hollywood and name your kid something crazy like Cypress or Cougar or Dragon.

Anonymous said...

Out, possible middle name (don't know why, since hubby rejected it every time I offered it as a first name) and out. And no crazy Hollywood names, we hate all of those. This is 8 years' worth of not agreeing you've got to overcome. If baby #1 is a boy, we'll be wishing baby #2 is a girl just because we have no name!

Chris said...

I can understand about the middle name thing - some names work in certain positions that wouldn't in the other. My daughter, for instance, is Athena Morgan. Morgan Athena just wouldn't work for me though.

Maribeth said...

Oh I have been meaning to comment on the whole ENT deal. I took Ryleigh last week to the doc and WE had a conversation about Ryleigh's snoring and her crazy breathing and they mentioned an ENT. I told them to hold off (yes I put the brakes on) because I am not all sure its an issue or not. After reading your posts though I suspect I should get the referral and take her to the ENT. Thanks for posting about all this. I found it helpful. Oh and when I had my tonsils taken out in my early 20s they wouldn't let me have dairy products for 5 days! So no ice cream. It creates mucus which isn't good for healing (I guess). Check with your doc before buying the 20 gallon tub! Keep us posted!

Jessica said...

Maribeth!
I'm glad our tonsil ordeal is informative!
You might want to put off any surgery until after your #2 arrives though, unless you think you can fast track her through the referral and into surgery too.
We're still waiting to hear back on a surgery date, but I have just under three months of a time window before my plate gets very full.
The ENT might even suggest waiting it out with Ryleigh since she is younger and the kids do tend to have larger tonsils, BUT if you're having sleep issues and apnea-like breathing, you might end up with a surgery recommendation too.
I would bring Dylan in and have him checked but I think they would turn me away because he's too young still and he doesn't seem to have apnea issues. But Elizabeth didn't either at his age...
Sooo.....
Yeah, get your referral and bring her in. Our appt. took seriously 10 minutes, if that. And it was totally worth it.


AMY!
How about George or Shawn or William?

Maribeth said...

Ryleigh does this crazy thing and it sound like she is holding her breath (no sound) she gets to the point I want to poke her and she does this big exhale. It's very strange. Baby is coming too soon for me to deal but I figure if we can at least get a consult in mid/late March and figure where we need to go (if anywhere) we will be in good shape. I also want Ryleigh 'healthy' (such a relative term with those 2 year olds).

Jessica said...

That is what the sleep apnea sounds like...
A few breaths, then nothing, then a big snarfle breath.
It's worth getting checked out for sure.
They'll take you more seriously if you go in there and say, "I'm pretty sure my child has sleep apnea" and describe what she does with her breathing at night, if she sleeps in funny positions, has trouble STAYING asleep or has frequent nightmares.
That indicates that the larger than normal tonsils are creating a problem and have to be dealt with. If you just go in and say, my kid has large tonsils, they might be too busy to get into the sleep history with you and you get shuffled off...know what I mean?
Good luck!!
I agree with you also on waiting until after baby...if I was as close as you are, I'd wait too!