Snore... z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z
Ethan had a sleep study done in the middle of December because he had gigantic tonsils and he snored a lot. The doctor's had asked me since he was a few months old if I had noticed any sleep apnea. I always said no because I never did. He snored but that was about it. He didn't jerk awake. He didn't stop breathing for long periods of time when I watched. He wasn't tired the next day and he didn't wake up multiple times at night. He did breathe funny at times. It was like he was breathing through a straw and it sounded like Darth Vader was in the house. Anyway we decided that we would put off the sleep study until we could afford it or it was necessary. We decided to just go ahead and do it this December because the doctor had talked about doing it as a way of seeing if Ethan's tonsils needed to come out. She was concerned that he would start kindergarten and get lots of strep throat and tonsillitis and have lots of problems because of how large his tonsils were. We really didn't think he had apnea. So when we went to the sleep doctor and she described hypopnea it sounded just like Ethan. It was the Vader breathing pretty much. It's where they don't stop breathing but don't get enough oxygen either. So later that night we went back to the clinic to do the study. The people there were awesome and really helped Ethan feel at ease. I didn't get any sleep but Ethan did really well. I still didn't think he had apnea. Well how stupid was I? Not only does he have sleep apnea, he has severe sleep apnea. Severe is greater than 10 respiratory events in a night. Ethan had 124! Are you kidding me. 18 times he stopped breathing and the rest were times that he got less than 50% oxygen. I can't even tell you the amount of guilt I felt. Needless to say I scheduled an ENT appointment that day to schedule Ethan's Tonsil and Adenoidectomy.
He had his surgery on Monday and he's been miserable since. He has a cold and a double ear infection on top of the surgery pain. Oy! Hopefully though this will all be worth it in the end and he won't have to sleep with a cpap machine.
I seriously don't know how he slept with all that stuff on him. He's such a good boy.
Frankenstein
He kinda looks like Rapunzzle.
P.S. I have no idea why that one section of text is bigger than the rest. I tried to edit it a million times and couldn't get it fixed. Anyone know why it can look one way while you're doing it than look another way once it's posted?