Sleep Eludes Us

For three years we have struggled with sleep issues. For three years I suspected Tate had sleep apnea. I witnessed him stop breathing in his sleep on several occasions. The first time he was a newborn laying on my chest. I shared my concerns multiple times with his doctor. He told me there wasn't anything they could do until he turned 3, so basically, I shouldn't worry about it. Easy for him to say. He wasn't getting up every night.
While it is true that they don't usually remove a child's tonsils before age 3, there are occasions that they will and sleep apnea is one of them. At Tate's three-year well child check-up, I told his new doctor about his sleep issues. There were nights that Tate would wake up more than Mayer! He immediately referred us to an ear, nose and throat specialist to check his tonsils and adenoids.

Tate and I saw the ENT for maybe 10 minutes. He asked me if Tate had a lot of trouble with tonsillitis or strep throat, which he hasn't. He asked me about snoring, which Tate did occasionally. Then he demonstrated the other breathing pattern that I wasn't able to explain. It was right on the money and just as I suspected, sleep apnea! He looked at Tate's tonsils and said they were enlarged. He gave me the option to do a tonsillectomy and an adenoidecomy immediately or put Tate through a sleep study. I scheduled the surgery for the following Monday.
During the pre-op questioning, they told Michael and me that Tate might not even need to take melatonin to help him go to sleep after the surgery. They were not only going to help Tate breathe better, but they were going to give me the gift of sleep too? AWESOME! I figured the hardest thing pre-op would be not letting him drink anything after midnight. I was wrong. The hardest thing was when they took my baby away from me and sent us back to the waiting room!

The waiting seemed to drag on for hours, but really it was between 30-45 minutes. He was crying when we got to the post-op room and continued to cry until we left the surgery center. He was highly agitated with the IV still in his hand, "take it off!" To get out of there, we had to get him to calm down, drink and take pain meds. I'll spare you details, but the drainage was horrible. His breath smelled awful too! We managed to get him to drink quite a bit, so they took the IV out. He threw up a few times, but it was all clear, which meant we didn't need to worry about it. The hardest part was getting him to take the liquid lortab. When the doctor discharged us, he said that both the tonsils and adenoids were larger than he suspected. They showed us the tonsils and asked if we wanted to keep them. Heck NO!!
He went to my parents' house because Michael and I both had to go to work. I called later in the morning to check on him and I could hear him snoring horribly. He was awake when I visited over my lunch hour and he even had an appetite. My mom called me later and asked if they had given him speed because he was bouncing off the walls! They had warned us that might happen.
There were several other things I had been told about tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies. Number one: stay on top of the pain meds. Give them every 4 hours like recommended. Number two: days 3 and 4 are usually the worst for they younger kids.
Number one was easier said than done! Tate is usually pretty good about taking medicine. Monday evening after surgery, we tried to wake him up several times to give him the lortab. His head just bobbed around and he was drooling like crazy. We paid the price at about midnight and every time we went longer than four hours between doses. It took both Michael and me to give it to him and then we had a hard time getting him to drink because it hurt. We were really struggling every time we had to give it to him. I begged the pharmacist to flavor the lortab with whatever he could to help. I even put a cry out for help on Facebook and got some tips: Jell-o shots, milkshakes, Hershey's strawberry or chocolate syrup and even Mary Poppins' advice, a spoonful of sugar. He wasn't too fond of Jell-o. We couldn't trick him with the milkshakes and he was on a restricted diet, no red or brown colored foods. I really could have used Mary Poppins! It would have been a lot better than holding him in our arms and forcing it in his mouth.
Number two was right on the money, except Tate had three pretty rough and painful days. Day two was pretty easy, aside from giving the pain medication. Michael left bright and early on the morning of day three for a ten-day elk hunt in New Mexico. By day four, I called the doctor's office back and asked if we could try tylenol. Unfortunately, the pain was too bad and the tylenol didn't even touch it.
The next few days are sort of a blur. At some point, the doctor prescribed steroids to help. I think that was after day 7 or 8 of very minimal sleep. Several times I wondered if we had done the right thing because the snoring was worse and I could hear him over the monitor gasping for breath. His pillow was drenched every time I went in there from so much drainage.

Photo by: Sarah May, Bella Vita Photography

I am happy to report that there is no more snoring (or drainage)! Another plus that came from the surgery is Tate's hearing has improved. He had his ears checked three weeks in a row, at preschool screening, his well child check-up and at school again, and all three times there was fluid in them. There wasn't ever an infection, just fluid. His voice sounds a little different. The only thing that hasn't really changed is that sleep they promised me! It isn't related to sleep apnea any more, so something else is going on. I'll let you know as soon as I get some sleep! :o)