sleep study results

[wrblack]

Had our post sleep study visit with pulmonologist yesterday. He said Charlie does have sleep apnea which he would characterize as moderate. Study showed Charlie slept reasonably well, fell asleep in 7 minutes, went through complete sleep cycle including REM sleep, woke only once. But he had more than 100 episodes, most not full apnea, didn't stop breathing, but his breathing became shallow, and he had drops in oxygenation.
So, back to the ENT doc we saw once about 18 months ago to discuss T&A, have appt for morning of the 24th. Will take it from there. Alternative to the T&A surgery is CPAP. Pulmonologist said T&A corrects problem just about all the time in kids without Ds and most of the time in kids with Ds. If you do the T&A and it doesn't work, then you go with CPAP. Seems like a reasonable game plan to me.
Oh, and for anyone who may have missed it, there's a photo of Charlie morning after the sleep study on this thread, unomas.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=health&action=display&thread=1105055956 -- oh, here's a little link to that thread, littlink.com/lcit9
Cheers,
Bob

[momofrussell]

Well, good luck with that game plan Bob! Hopefully the T&A surgery will do the trick!

A.

[wrblack]

So, here's Charlie checking to see if Bear knows anything about T&A surgery.

That's a Bear in the Big Blue House book he's sticking his hand in.
Let's see, we take Charlie's little brother Robert back to the High Risk Infant clinic on Valentine's Day. Charlie needs to go to Philadelphia to visit with anesthesiology department on St. Patrick's Day. We've already got him lined up for AP and lateral neck x-rays next week. Then Charlie is scheduled for a short stay T&A procedure at CHOP on April Fool's Day. Our ENT doc has a very busy calendar. They tried for a couple dates in March but nope, no good. April 1, a Friday.
How could we have left out Easter? A few years ago Charlie was camping out under an oxygen tent at local hospital at Easter, for RSV. And it snowed. I don't think we really need anything for Easter this year.
Oh, but good ENT doc agreed with pulmonologist on significant findings in sleep study. And he again commented on what large tonsils Charlie has. Says that's an indication that T&A has a good chance of resolving OSA problem.
Cheers,
Bob

[kimnz]

Hi Bob,

that is one cute little fella!!

I am amazed at the services that you all get (and very HAPPY for you all).... despite having to shake Jordan when he was little and unwell to make sure he was breathing we have never had sleep studies done. We also don't get many of the other services that people in America and Canada get eg OT, PT, VNT etc on a regular basis and this is due to prioritising of services where I live. It is not like this for all of New Zealand of course but we live in the North.

It puts a lot of the pressure back on to parents to help their child develop to their potentail without the full supports that they need. I think this makes for extra stress.

However - we had one wonderful woman come over from the UK who knew all about children with ds and transitioning them to school and since she has been around even though it is in the educational department.....things have moved forward.

Sometimes it seems just having one person with specialist skills makes a huge difference....heres hoping for some more in the health/hospital department!

Kim