When Vili was about 6 hours old, I pushed the little red button to call the nurse in (a big deal because I NEVER push the button to call the nurse, it reminds me of slavery and makes me feel lazy) and said to her "I think there's something wrong with my baby, he can't breathe properly." She assured me that it was just fluid and that it would clear.
Liar.
As I suspected, there was something physically wrong. Vili was born with abnormally large adenoids. I'm talking huge. All of our video footage of him as a baby, you would think he had a constant blocked nose. From day 1 he's been a mouth breather because his nose just wasn't an option. From birth he's been a snorer - we knew he was asleep because he was snoring, if he wasn't snoring then he wasn't asleep. He has never slept through the night because as he sleeps he closes his mouth, can't breathe through his nose, and so awakes gasping for air and crying. And from the get go he has snorted, continuously throughout the day. My family would joke and call him a little piglet, that's how often he snorted. And with his nasal passages being as restricted as they were, if he ever did get a cold, it was all over red rover because his nose would be 100% blocked.
Add to this 8 ear infections in 12 months. Ear infections so bad that once they tested his hearing while his ear was infected and it was a flat line, completely deaf. This, along with the inability to breathe through his nose, had begun to affect his speech significantly.
Poor kid, right?
(Poor Mummy, too.)
And so took him to see an ear, nose and throat specialist who confirmed what I suspected - his nasal passages were 80% blocked by excessively large adenoids. His name was put on the list of surgery and a few months later we got the call.
The whole thing happened so fast, we were only actually in the hospital for about 3 hours or so. We went and checked in, got talked through it all, then he got to draw and play until they were ready for him. He got wheeled in on his special bed into theatre. I lay on the bed with him and hugged him and talked to him while they put him to sleep, and then I was ushered out of the room (with a few nervous tears in my eyes). My sister had come to sit and wait with me, which I was really grateful for, because every time I heard footsteps my heart would stop thinking "Did something go wrong? Is he ok? Was he the 1 in a million kid where all the worst possible scenarios are realized?"
Clutching his new car aka bribery
The procedure took just under an hour and then he went into the recovery room. When he started to wake up they came and got me. He was upset, which made me upset (although I managed to internalize it because I didn't want to upset him more). So I lay with him and tried to comfort him as best I could, with little success. He hated the drip in his arm and tried pulling it out. I eventually convinced a nurse to take it out. He cried saying he wanted to see his Dad and his brother. And then he told me he was soooooooooooooo hungry (not surprising considering he had had to fast for 18hours beforehand). Luckily the nurses had on hand his favourite food - strawberry jam toast. He gobbled it up and asked for another. And another. And another. I then told him they had no more toast. Once he'd eaten they said we could go home.
The only picture I got afterwards, hard to take pictures of a kid while you're holding them.
Malachi was so sweet and made Vili all these card and pictures while he was gone to help him feel better.
He was grumpy at home, but easily lulled with movies. Getting him to sleep was hard, but when he finally did fall asleep with me in my bed there was this really strange noise that I hadn't heard before.
Silence.
For the first time in his life, Vili DIDN'T snore. It was awesome.
He continued to be grumpy the next few days, although I suspect most of that was because he is a 2 year old trying his best to be terrible.
I have a new appreciation for our health care system. Never at any point in his did I have to stop and think "Oh no, I wonder how much that's going to cost us" coz the answer is NOTHING.
His speech is already improving, he's a little clearer and easier to understand. He closes his mouth to eat now, which is great. And we haven't had any snoring. It's been 3 months since his last ear infection, the longest he's ever been, which is awesome. The surgeon did tell us that because his adenoids were so big, they will most probably grow back and he will have to have them removed again when he's about 6. But we'll see.
For now we're just grateful that it was all a success and that he's healthy and happy.
Liar.
As I suspected, there was something physically wrong. Vili was born with abnormally large adenoids. I'm talking huge. All of our video footage of him as a baby, you would think he had a constant blocked nose. From day 1 he's been a mouth breather because his nose just wasn't an option. From birth he's been a snorer - we knew he was asleep because he was snoring, if he wasn't snoring then he wasn't asleep. He has never slept through the night because as he sleeps he closes his mouth, can't breathe through his nose, and so awakes gasping for air and crying. And from the get go he has snorted, continuously throughout the day. My family would joke and call him a little piglet, that's how often he snorted. And with his nasal passages being as restricted as they were, if he ever did get a cold, it was all over red rover because his nose would be 100% blocked.
Add to this 8 ear infections in 12 months. Ear infections so bad that once they tested his hearing while his ear was infected and it was a flat line, completely deaf. This, along with the inability to breathe through his nose, had begun to affect his speech significantly.
Poor kid, right?
(Poor Mummy, too.)
And so took him to see an ear, nose and throat specialist who confirmed what I suspected - his nasal passages were 80% blocked by excessively large adenoids. His name was put on the list of surgery and a few months later we got the call.
The whole thing happened so fast, we were only actually in the hospital for about 3 hours or so. We went and checked in, got talked through it all, then he got to draw and play until they were ready for him. He got wheeled in on his special bed into theatre. I lay on the bed with him and hugged him and talked to him while they put him to sleep, and then I was ushered out of the room (with a few nervous tears in my eyes). My sister had come to sit and wait with me, which I was really grateful for, because every time I heard footsteps my heart would stop thinking "Did something go wrong? Is he ok? Was he the 1 in a million kid where all the worst possible scenarios are realized?"
Clutching his new car aka bribery
The procedure took just under an hour and then he went into the recovery room. When he started to wake up they came and got me. He was upset, which made me upset (although I managed to internalize it because I didn't want to upset him more). So I lay with him and tried to comfort him as best I could, with little success. He hated the drip in his arm and tried pulling it out. I eventually convinced a nurse to take it out. He cried saying he wanted to see his Dad and his brother. And then he told me he was soooooooooooooo hungry (not surprising considering he had had to fast for 18hours beforehand). Luckily the nurses had on hand his favourite food - strawberry jam toast. He gobbled it up and asked for another. And another. And another. I then told him they had no more toast. Once he'd eaten they said we could go home.
The only picture I got afterwards, hard to take pictures of a kid while you're holding them.
Malachi was so sweet and made Vili all these card and pictures while he was gone to help him feel better.
He was grumpy at home, but easily lulled with movies. Getting him to sleep was hard, but when he finally did fall asleep with me in my bed there was this really strange noise that I hadn't heard before.
Silence.
For the first time in his life, Vili DIDN'T snore. It was awesome.
He continued to be grumpy the next few days, although I suspect most of that was because he is a 2 year old trying his best to be terrible.
I have a new appreciation for our health care system. Never at any point in his did I have to stop and think "Oh no, I wonder how much that's going to cost us" coz the answer is NOTHING.
His speech is already improving, he's a little clearer and easier to understand. He closes his mouth to eat now, which is great. And we haven't had any snoring. It's been 3 months since his last ear infection, the longest he's ever been, which is awesome. The surgeon did tell us that because his adenoids were so big, they will most probably grow back and he will have to have them removed again when he's about 6. But we'll see.
For now we're just grateful that it was all a success and that he's healthy and happy.
1 comment:
Awww the whole fast/waiting/recoup sucks :(. Glad he's better though.
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