I'm back!

Yeah, okay, I took a couple of months off. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to write about, and then I was too tired, and too lazy, so...yeah.

Anyway, it's officially summer! I say officially because school got out this past Monday, and Graduation was Monday night. It's hard to say who's more happy on Graduation day- students or staff. I think this year the staff won that contest. I can't say too much here, but there's a lot of things going on at work right now that are making it a very stressful place to be. Hopefully a summer of rest for everyone will help that situation a bit.

Frank is doing okay. I'm not sure if I've blogged about his ear infection saga or not, and am feeling too lazy to go back and check. Anyway, he had an upper respiratory creeping crud thing back in late January; I brought him to the pediatrician, and she looked in his ears and told me that he also had a double ear infection, a bad one. She prescribed an antibiotic and told me to bring him back in a week to get checked out, it was that bad; normally, for ears, she has patients come back in four weeks. Darrel took him back the following week, and the upper respiratory thing was much better, but the ears were just as bad, so home they came with antibiotic number two. One month later, we went back- the ears were better, but not totally healed, so home we went with antibiotic number three. One month later, (we're now on the first week in April, for those playing along at home) back we went- the ears still had fluid, albeit noninfected. She said that, if not for his history, she wouldn't be concerned about it, but with his history, she recommended that we take him to an ear, nose and throat specialist. (ENT)

Darrel and I took him to Dr. L. Not only was his card one of the handful of possibilities that the pediatrician gave us, but the mother of one of Frank's classmates recommended him, saying he had a good way with kids, and was not "quick to cut". I did not like this doctor, but couldn't put my finger on what bothered me. Anyway, he recomended tubes, which we figured was coming, and when he looked in Frank's throat, he said his tonsils were huge, and would need to come out, and oh, the adenoids would need to go, too- did we hear that nasally quality in Frank's speech? That was from the tonsils and the adenoids being too large. They also needed to come out because they were blocking the Eustachian tubes, and even if he got tubes, in a year or two, we'd be back where we started with the ears. He basically just threw this all at us, without really giving us time to ask questions.

Well, I asked him if the surgery could wait until July- I have off for the summer, and it's not really feasible for either of us to take two weeks off during the school year to be home with Frank while he recovers from surgery. His answer? "It's possible but not optimal. Get Grandma or someone to stay with him, if you can't."

"Well, see, that's precisely the problem," I told him icily. "We don't have anyone who can stay with him."

"Well, you can get Family Leave, right?"

"No, not really. I've been absent too much this school year as is, and I do not have tenure."

Grr. Anyway, we went home and thought the whole thing through, and I talked to my coworkers, experienced mommies all. After hearing many tell me to bring him for a second opinion, I did, to Dr. G.

I should have gone to Dr. G to begin with! From the start, I felt much more comfortable with him. After listening to me tell him the history, he looked in Frank's throat and commented, "Well, his tonsils are kinda big, but they're not the biggest I've ever seen. How many times has he had tonsilitis?"

"Um...he's never been diagnosed with it," I told him. Yes, I fully appreciate that he may have had it but never been formally diagnosed with it, which is why I phrased the repsonse that way. Dr. G frowned.

"Does he have sleep apnea? Snoring, sounds like he stops breathing during the night?"

"He breathes deeply, but he doesn't do that stereotypical snore, you know? And as for the breathing...we don't keep the monitor on all night. I can't say that he does, but I can't say that he doesn't, either."

Dr. G explained that he was not a fan of "while we're in there, let's yank the tonsils, too." He said without sleep apnea and without a history of tonsilitis, he was uncomfortable recommending the tonsils come out, and referred him for a sleep study, in the pediatric sleep lab at the hospital.

We did the sleep study Friday night. Yay for spending the night ina vinyl recliner next to Frank's crib. [/heavy sarcasm] Frank was confused and upset, and kept asking to go home. :( Beforehand, I had cringed at the thought of the electrodes- yay for putting sticky things on the skin of a child with Sensory Processing Disorder! This is a child who won't even let us put a band-aid on him. Seriously, he'd rather bleed. We even tried the Elmo band-aids- no dice. However, he handled the electrodes better than I had thought he would. he still wasn't happy about them, but he didn't try to yank them all off like I'd expected him to.

The other annoyance was, when he rolled over during the night, some of the electrodes fell off, which meant the tech had to come in and reattach them, waking him up in the process. Needless to say, both Frank and I were just in a wonderful mood by about 6am, when they sent us on our merry way. Saturday night, we both slept quite well!

The good news is, he does not have sleep apnea! I need to make the follow-up appointment with Dr G (I transferred his records from Dr L to Dr G last week), and then schedule the surgery. But I feel much better not having to do the tonsils- the recovery time will apparently be half without that!!