Thursday, January 8, 2015

Bye Bye Tonsils and Adenoids!

The boys have slept upstairs together since we built this house, so watching them sleep hasn't been a habit of ours. When we went to Disneyland in October, we got a rude awakening into Griffin's sleeping pattern. He had severe sleep apnea where he'd gasp for air. He would even use his thumb as a prop to keep his mouth open and tongue in place. It made sense now all the times we'd find him with his head swung over the side of the bed - so he could breathe!

We saw Dr Buchanan and Dr Brown and decided to go with Dr Brown who suggested we have his adenoids removed as they were very enlarged. We opted to also have his tonsils removed at the same time. It was a hard decision but we didn't want them causing a problem later in life and then he'd have to have another surgery.

The night before the surgery, December 30, Maysen spent the night with Grandma and Poppy. We took Griffin to Fred Meyer and had a shopping spree - we let him pick out whatever he wanted for after surgery.


Griffin amazed me with his bravery. He understood what was going to happen and although he was nervous he rose above the anxiety.



Tonya was our pre-op nurse and she was amazing. The second we walked into the surgery center she played Hide and Seek with Griffin and that put him at ease right away.


Griffin was given "Wingy" by Tonya right before surgery. This dinosaur even ROARED when pushed on the belly.


Surgery went well. In post op, he kept coughing and clearing his throat and then kept saying 'I can't breathe' which was scary - but he had inflamed his throat and made it swell. We were out of there soon, though and home. Griffin woke me up a few mornings later with this note. Bless his heart.

We had a set back on Day 7 - he started having a lot of pain. He was getting so frustrated with not eating regular food that I gave him some soft sloppy joe the night before. The next morning he had a lot of pain. Dr Brown told me 10% of patients have this revert or backslide in pain. He slept for 14hrs that night and woke up feeling much better!


This was him the next morning. We are so on day 8 and he's doing much better. He is still on Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 4-6hrs. He finally pooped yesterday after a week (and Miralax, Ex-Lax, and Milk of Mag) and Gatorade is our friend. I'm hopeful that he continues on the mend!