Bella's surgery

How they expect people to sleep with all those wire, I'll never know!

Bella was having problems focusing and was always tired.  She also was a super loud snorer.  I never linked the problems together until I overheard another mom in my exercise class talking about what a difference it had made once her son was diagnosed with sleep apnea and had surgery.  I went home and did some research on sleep apnea.  Jared and I were floored at how well the symptoms fit Bella.  We took her to the pediatrician who was great and referred us to the sleep center.  Bella had a sleep study done in June at the Alton Memorial Sleep Center.  It was located in the Holiday Inn in Alton.  One level of one wing was closed off for the sleep center.  We went in Sunday evening and they hooked Bella up to the machines.   Jared was already working in Indiana so the Pearson were a life -saver and watched the kids for us.  Bella and I stayed the night.  We were in adjoining rooms but I didn't sleep at all.  Can you blame me?  My little girl was hooked up to machines and I wasn't comfortable leaving her alone so I couldn't relax enough to sleep.(Rochelle was a life-saver again when she had me drop Bella off and continued to watch the kids while I slept).  I kept checking on her through out the night and was getting frustrated because she wasn't snoring at all.  She normally snored so loud that she would consistently startle herself awake.  I was afraid we were going to go through the study for nothing.  However, even though she slept much better than normal the test still reported a mild case of sleep apnea.  Since any degree of sleep apnea is considered abnormal in kids that young she was referred to an ENT in St. Louis. Unfortunately, the ENT couldn't get her in until the day before we moved so we crossed our fingers and hoped the doctor here would continue with the process.  I was a little worried I would have to be driving her into Chicago since we were going to have to see an ENT in St. Louis. The first thing I did here was find a pediatrician and set up an appointment for Bella and have the results of the test faxed to the new pediatrician.  I wanted to move forward on helping her get the rest she needed and yes, I wanted it all done the same calendar year so I didn't have to meet the deductible twice!! Dr. Brogan was great and referred her to an ENT here in Valpo.  The ENT got us in 2 days later. He was only in the room about 2 minutes (just long enough to look inside her mouth) before declaring she needed to have her tonsils removed.  He said they'd take her tonsils and adenoids at the same time.  We were leaving for Ohio later that afternoon to spend a long weekend fixing up the house since it was finally up for sale.  He opened his calendar and asked how the 17th worked.  The 17th was less than a week away and she needed to have lab work done.  I quickly ran her to the outpatient center here in town and got her lab work completed with only about 2 hours to spare before we left.  We ended up having car problems in Ohio but made it back in time for the surgery.

Bella pre-surgery

I was impressed with how quickly everything moved.  I also appreciated the convenience of the outpatient center right here in Valpo.  Her tonsils were indeed quite large as the ENT had suspected but he was amazed by the size of her adenoids.  He said they were blocking about 90% of her nasal passage.  She is doing much better now.  She isn't so tired and grumpy all the time.  She is doing much better at school and her reading has vastly improved.  I think she was so tired all the time before and couldn't focus.   My only complaint is that they told Bella and Jared and I that they would retrieve us from the waiting room and have us in the room with her before she woke up.  They did not do that.  I would have been okay with them waiting to make sure she awoke without any complications if they had told us and her that from the beginning.  But don't assure my 6 yr old that I'll be there when she wakes up if you have no intention of getting me.  It made it look like I abandoned her.  But, overall I don't have any complaints.  The whole process went smoothly especially considering that we moved in the middle of it.  Bella in her typical dramatic fashion refused to talk for longer that the doctor thought necessary afterwards.  She also ended up missing some school.  The doctor wanted her to stay home the first 3 days but she was very upset to miss the first day so he allowed her to attend a 1/2 day on the first day of school.  Xandy on the other hand was wishing she'd had surgery to extend her summer vacation also.