Parental Decisons

Well, in an effort to get caught up with my blogging, here's a post!

We changed childcare at the end of May and it's the first time Jesse has been in a formal daycare setting.  He's doing pretty well; he had some adjustment issues, but we're working through them.  The biggest obstacle is that he's a nail biter, a severe nail biter.  So every germ that he touches goes in his mouth all. day. long.  It's not good.  He had strep throat, fifths disease, and strep throat again before he'd even been there a month.  Not good.  Then he broke out in hives, allergic to the anti-biotics we're guessing.  That's what our family doc thought.  She also suggested seeing an ENT for his tonsils since he was supposed to be over his strep but his tonsils were still pretty irritated.

We went to the ENT.  He looked in Jesse's ears, all good.  Nose, all good.  Throat-okay, yeah, we'll want to get those out.  The nurse came in to schedule the surgery.  I had determined prior to going in that I was not making a decision while I was in the office, which I told them when they wanted to schedule surgery for two weeks later.  She understood and gave me all the information to look over and just said to call in to schedule.

None of my other boys have had tonsil issues, and I really only look at their throat when they are sick, so I hadn't paid much attention to Jesse's tonsils being so big.  But man, they are big, and irritated most of the time.  Now that I've been paying attention I think he has several problems that the tonsils attribute to. 

Jesse's always been a very light sleeper, most anything wakes him up, and he talks in his sleep.  Like he was in the middle of his dream and just started talking out loud.  The checklist at the ENT's office asked if he has sleep apnea, and I said no, but now I think maybe he does, but I've just always thought he was a light sleeper.  Maybe it's the sleep apnea that's waking him up all the time?  Then I'm thinking that maybe (but only maybe) if he can get a good night's sleep that he'll be able to control himself and his anger better.

I was also worried because the ENT said that for kids under four, it's slightly more risky and they have to stay in the hospital for 23 hours after the surgery for observation.  I asked his opinion of waiting a year until he's four.  The ENT advised to do it now, he said that with Jesse's tonsils so big his concern was that if Jesse gets sick and they swell, it could block his airway.  OK THEN!  Way to freak a mama out!  He was also watching Jesse the whole time he was talking to me at the consultation and he said that he felt that Jesse would understand consequences, and would be able to understand that he'd need to drink in order to stay healthy and heal properly.  So I guess Jesse's smart enough :)

We've decided to go ahead and have them taken out.  Then hopefully he won't be plagued with a lifetime of sore throats like his Daddy.  But we're waiting until after vacation, don't want to be recovering away from home!