Will's Visit to Children's Dallas

Well, yesterday we headed to Children's Dallas to see if we could figure out Will's snoring problem. We found a new ENT doctor, Dr Romaine Johnson, who actually studied under our wonderful Dr Cotton in Cinci, and he came highly recommended so away we went!

First thing Wednesday morning we had a MLB (scope of the airway) so we could make sure that it wasn't anything graft related or tonsils that were enlarged causing the snoring.

Will did so good!! He was so brave!! My little man has come such a long way since his last MLB in December, which did not go very well! What a difference 8 months can make! He was ready to go that morning! One of the life specialists came into see him before the surgery. She brought all of the things they were going to do to him with her like the pulse ox, the IV setup, the probes, etc. She let him put them all over his little baby cow so she could show him that it didn't hurt! Great job on her part, because when it was his turn, he just let them do it all, and said, "See Mom, I told you it wouldn't hurt!" Then he usually throws a fit when they make him wear the hospital gown, this time he put it right on, and said, "See Mom, I told you I would look handsome!" He was sooo cute!!

This was his first time for "Silly Juice" so he was quite the character on it!! He looked at me, grinned and said, "Hey Mom, how come when I shut my eyes everything turns red?" He was giggling and acting goofy!! He ALWAYS throws a screaming fit when they bring out the anesthesia gas mask, but this time, they let him pick out a flavor, he picked bubble gum, and he LOVED it!! He just kept sniffing it! And when the MLB was over, he looks at it, and says, "Mom, I think I need to take that bubble gum with me." Thus, we have it at the house!

We got great news from the doctor!! His airway is WONDERFUL!! And his tonsils and adenoids are fine, not enlarged at all. We were like YEAH!! Then we were like. . . .so what is making him snore? Then the other shoe dropped, it is his jaw, all his jaw. This was NOT the news were were hoping for! Because of his small jaw, it is forcing an upper airway obstruction (pushing his tongue back over his airway) when he is resting. He showed us pictures of the obstruction with his jaw relaxed and then with his jaw being pushed forward. There was a HUGE difference! Not good at all! But, he wanted to get the sleep study results first before we freak out about the jaw distraction.

He woke up sooo good! When we got back there to him he was eating a rainbow Popsicle and playing with his new tractor toy he got to pick out! And this is COMPLETELY different from December when he was the kid they had 5 nurses around him trying to hold him down to calm him, yeah, that is my kid! But he was GREAT this time!! When we got back there, he said, "See Mom, I told you I was brave." with tears in his eyes! He is such a brave little man!

They had some clowns, Dr Slappy, that came around to the post op kids. Will had a blast with them! They blew bubbles at him and gave him (and us) silly red clown noses to wear! It really was a good experience at the hospital!





We left the hospital and got to run around for a while, we took Will to Toys-R-Us (for his first time) to pick out a toy for being so brave! He got a cool Viper remote control car, too cool!

Then it was back to the hospital for the sleep study. Again, Will did SUPER! He just let the nurse put all those electrodes all over him, and messed with his face and hair, and he just sat there! Man, he has come a long way! He thought he looked pretty cute!

However, once the nasal cannula went on, he wasn't as happy, but he pulled through, left it in and we went to sleep (well, he did, we didn't).

The night didn't go very well, however. The nurse came in after just two hours and said he had hit his maximum limit of respiratory events he was allowed without intervention. We were like, What??? He had had over 15 events of apnea, shallow breathing, or desats in one hour for both the hours. We didn't even know! I mean, we knew, we just didn't want to know! It is just truly scary! He was having apnea spells on average every 4 minutes, and was desating up to 5%, but never got out of the 90's (thank goodness). It is still super scary!

So the nurse tried to put C-pap on him, to see if that helped, but he would have nothing of it! I can't say I blame him, that mask is horrible and when you are an exhausted, in a new place, woken up, scared little four year old, stuff like that just isn't going to happen! So she let him just calm down, and monitored the rest of the night. At 5:00am she came back in and said he pretty much did it all night, on average 15 or more events per hour, no matter what position he was in. Thus, not good, not good at all.

So, we will wait for the official report from the sleep study and see what the doctor has to say, but we are desperately afraid, and know that the jaw distraction surgery is in our immediate future, just how immediate we will see. Please continue to keep Will in your thoughts and prayer, he is such a brave little guy and is so resilient, but we were really hoping to not have to put him through this.