Sleep Apena?

[2disneyboys]

so DS8 is very excited -- he's been counting days the days for a few weeks now as this Thurs night he "gets to spend the night @ our local CHKD for a sleep apena test" His words... lol, I guess I'm glad he's excited about the adventure instead of afraid!.

anyway, my question is this... anyone with younger kids who have been diagnosed w/ Sleep Apena end up having their tonsels/adnoids removed? how did that all work out? did it help?

Long story summarized.. last spring we went to an ENT specialist about a cyst in DS's nose. the Dr's brought up the size of his tonsils (he was not sick then and really does not get sick much other than ear infections etc) they had me bring him back for a f/u (cyst on his nose) and asked me to pay particular attention to his breathing/sleep cycles etc in the 3 months between appointments... so a trip that started for a "cyst" turned into potential sleep apena .... After taking my questions to the web, I can see where he does have some classic sympthoms of sleep apena and I feel like a bad mother for not having noticed it before. In my defense, he has never slept w/ us so its not like I sleep next to him all the time...

Just curious more than anything if this is a common thing...

 

[Liberty Belle]

so DS8 is very excited -- he's been counting days the days for a few weeks now as this Thurs night he "gets to spend the night @ our local CHKD for a sleep apena test" His words... lol, I guess I'm glad he's excited about the adventure instead of afraid!.

anyway, my question is this... anyone with younger kids who have been diagnosed w/ Sleep Apena end up having their tonsels/adnoids removed? how did that all work out? did it help?

Long story summarized.. last spring we went to an ENT specialist about a cyst in DS's nose. the Dr's brought up the size of his tonsils (he was not sick then and really does not get sick much other than ear infections etc) they had me bring him back for a f/u (cyst on his nose) and asked me to pay particular attention to his breathing/sleep cycles etc in the 3 months between appointments... so a trip that started for a "cyst" turned into potential sleep apena .... After taking my questions to the web, I can see where he does have some classic sympthoms of sleep apena and I feel like a bad mother for not having noticed it before. In my defense, he has never slept w/ us so its not like I sleep next to him all the time...

Just curious more than anything if this is a common thing...

May I ask what his symptoms are? My dh has it, but the only thing I noticed was him stopping breathing at night and irritability during the day. I'm wondering if my youngest has it.

 

[MamaJessie]

Just found out today dd is getting her tonsils out. She is 12 and her tonsils are so large she is literally gagging on them at night

That's great that your son is upbeat about the sleep trial. DH did one a couple years ago and he was a big baby (no really, I love the man but he was a big baby about the whole thing )

 

[2disneyboys]

May I ask what his symptoms are? My dh has it, but the only thing I noticed was him stopping breathing at night and irritability during the day. I'm wondering if my youngest has it.

-irritability during the day
-difficulity focusing (he always claims he's TIRED)
-snoring during sleep and *gasp* the occasional pause... good grief.. after the specialist asked me about his breathing at night I was like IDK, he does snore, I can hear him from a room or so away, but I've never paid attention.. after that appt when the Dr asked me to please pay attention, I have nearly broken my back several times jumping up to go thump him on his chest of soemthing only to have his do that snort/snore thing and start breathing again. geeze...
-always always sleepy during the day ( he gets up @ 7-7:15 each morning and goes to bed no later than 8:30 on a school night so he "should" be getting plenty of sleep. yet he is always tired and loves to "snuggle in and take a good nap"
-short attention span
-very small for his age (I don't like to use the word stunted, but the thought is out there..) he's always been little though so this might just be a cause of finding a sympthom to match vs the size actually being a sympthem

The crazy thing is I was going to talk to his Ped next month @ his annual check up about potentially having a mild form of ADHD or something due to his inability to complete tasks and focus.. when the specialist was talking about his possibly having sleep apena and the side effects/sypmthoms, it was like I saw the light bulb go off ... They measured his tonsils and said that they are a 2.5. it they were a 3 they would just remove them, but a 2.5 makes them borderline. I have no ideal what the 2.5 is other than their measurement scale.. crazy kid has never even had strepthroat or something like that.. just has large tonsils..

 

[Sadie22]

If you Google apnea you may find more info. Unfortunately I had my tonsils out almost 50 years ago when I was 8 so they're not the cause of my adult sleep apnea. I hope you soon have a diagnosis and treatment for your boy.

 

[Leajess99]

My youngest had her adnoids out for the signs of sleep apnea. They skipped the testing and went straight to removing her adnoids. She used to snore something awful and scared the heck out of me.

What lead us to the ENT was my middle child failed her hearing test at her 11 year old physical which required her to be sent to the ENT and audiologist for them to find that she could hear perfectly fine and the ped's office just sucked at administering her the test. While with the ENT I asked about my youngest's snoring and she wanted to see her immediately. The decision was made and she made sure I knew that the adnoids could grow back.

Anyway, my youngest had surgery to remove her adnoids but because her tonsils looked fine they left them. Fast forward 18 months and we may be having tonsils removed due to numerous (5 so far) positive strep tests/diagnosis.

Now, my middle dd did have the Sleep study done but their findings were "iffy". They wanted to watch her but due to issues with their billing practices (trying to get me to pay for everything AFTER the insurance had paid and had proof they cashed the check, then sending me to collections AFTER returning all money I had paid with a letter explaining they recieved a grant and were therefore returning the money to myself and insurance - collection agency gave up as I provided copies of everything to them). We followed up elsewhere and no concern for middle dd.

Good luck to your son and I hope they find out what may be the issue and correct it for him.