The Surgery That Wasn't

Last July, Etta had her tonsils and adenoids removed because a sleep study showed pretty significant sleep apnea (Post #1, Post #2, Post #3, Post #4, Post #5, aaand Post #6) and her follow-up sleep study in January showed that she still has obstructive sleep apnea. The sleep study was actually worse than before the surgery. So, her ENT (Dr. Wootten) wanted to put her under ("drug-induced sleep") and scope her to see if he could find the source of the obstruction. When we met that day, we talked about the possible things it could be (there were about 5 possibilities) and that I had a few options. Option A was skip the scope and try a cpap (continuous positive airway pressure) while she sleeps (yeah right! No WAY she's keeping that on her face!), then move to surgery if that doesn't work. Option B was to put her under, scope her, wake her up, talk about what the issue is and go from there. Option C was to put her under, scope her, find the obstruction, he'd come out and talk with us, and we'd just do the surgery while she was already under anesthesia. I told him option C and we met with the scheduler and set the date- Which was last Wednesday (5/23/12).

So, we went in last Wednesday. Mel came down to stay with Daniel (and she was prepared to stay one or two nights) and we had to starve Etta all morning and then we headed to Vandy Children's and wait around there for a few hours. They were an hour late getting her into the OR.

But, they finally came for her, put her under, scoped her, and Dr. Wootten meet with us to tell us his findings. Of all the possibilities, it is the one with the most difficult recovery time. He says it's the base of her tongue falling back in her airway. The surgical course of treatment is removal of the lingual tonsil AND mid line posterior glossectomy (which would reduce the mass of her tongue at the base. would not affect swallowing or speech). This would require a 3-5 night stay in the hospital and about a three week recovery period. I had my bag and was prepared to go ahead with it.

Dr. Wootten left us for a few minutes to talk about it and of course Keith and I were not on the same page. When Dr. Wootten came back in, he brought the anesthesiologist (Dr. Newton) with him. After some discussion, it was decided to take her home and try a cpap for 4-6 months and if it's not working, come back for the surgery in the late Fall. That way, we will at least feel that we tried the least invasive measures first. 

She was cute coming out of anesthesia. I know it must have felt good to sleep. So, we let her.

I got a call a few days later from the scheduler at the sleep lab (yup, we have to go to the sleep clinic again to get her fitted for the cpap. I know you're jealous! *sigh*) and guess what? The next opening they have is at the end of AUGUST! They put me on their cancellation list to see if we can get in any sooner, but with this timeline, it looks like it'll be next Spring before we move on to the surgical option. Of course the HOPE is that she will adjust to sleeping with that mask on her face, but I'm not convinced she'll wear it or not break it. I mean, just yesterday during her nap time, I found her like this: