Friday, July 23 – surgery day

Avah had her follow up appt with Dr K (the ENT) for the results of her sleep study. The appt went well, better than expected actually. Dr K was actually decisive and said that judging by the results of the sleep study (moderate sleep apnea during the REM phase) and the size of her tonsils (80% blocking her airway) that he would definitely recommend having her tonsils and adenoids removed.

We went on vacation last week and Avah slept in our bed the whole week. She snored every night and tossed and turned. She even woke up startled a couple times which Dr K said might have been because she stopped breathing breifly. I think I was leaning towards having them removed before the appt today. And he sort of calmed my fears because I felt like he was making the recommendation and fully supported the decision. He says he's usually a pretty conservative doctor (which I believe) but that he would definitely recommend doing the surgery. He went over the procedure and told us what to expect – a week or two of really bad sore throat, not eating much, and pain medication (Tylenol with Codine) every 3 to 4 hours. After that, there may be some bleeding around days 10 thru 17 when the scabs fall off (yuck!), but it’s usually not a problem and stops after a few ice cubes or a popsicle. The procedure itself only takes 15 minutes, so after a short observation time to make sure they come out of the anesthesia they get to go home. I felt like all my questions were answered at the time of the appt, but now I have more like will she be groggy? Will she be able to talk? After a couple days will she be playing or will she be laying around wanting to rest? I think I might call Dr K back and see what he has to say. Dr K also said that it would be totally worth it and we wouldn't regret it. I just hate the thought of her being in pain. And, how do you prepare a 3 year old for surgery? Or all the pain afterwards?

After talking with Russ, we (together) decided that we should have the surgery done. So, we picked a date and scheduled it for July 23rd. There’s never a good time to do these types of things but I hope that in the long run we’ll feel like we made the right decision and hope more importantly, that she’ll be better rested, snore less, and no longer have sleep apnea.