Some unsolved mysteries involving Claire were recently solved. Thank you God! Mystery #1. During Claire's Kindergarten year, she was the first one up in our house. Uniform on, shoes tied, smile on her face and ready to start the day with tons of positive energy. This past school year (1st grade), Claire has hard to wake in the morning. Groggy, tired, hard to get moving. It certainly wasn't the Claire I knew but I dismissed it and blamed it on her being less excited for school. Mystery #2. Claire is a very smart little girl. She has a very vast range of vocabulary and has a lot of profound things to say. The downside? She is hard to understand. When she was a toddler and began talking, she was what we lovingly called
mush mouth. Every word kind of ran into the next making it hard to understand her. I keep waiting for her speech to be clearer- but up to now, no such luck. Mystery #3. Claire is a pretty quiet sleeper. No teeth grinding like her brothers, just a bathroom break in the middle of the night. So why all of the sudden did I start hearing her snore all night long? And it's not that cute little snoring you see in cartoons, it is the 'sawing logs' kind of snoring that made me feel so bad for her! She didn't have a cold, no sore throat, and when questioned- she never said she had any pain. Mystery #4. Swallowing. Claire is an eater (a girl after my own heart) but she has the hardest time swallowing her food quickly. The only way I can describe it was that when she swallowed she had a little hitch/movement she would do about four times to get the food down.
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, '
Hello, Lisa. She needs her tonsils taken out!' It is more clear to me now more than ever. But when you are juggling the needs of four kids and trying to keep a household running, sometimes things aren't as obvious as them seem. I never sat down and thought about Mysteries 1-4 as a group, I instead worked with each issue separately and tried to figure out what was wrong. Well, once I looked in her throat after her snoring became outrageous- I saw the GIANT tonsils in her throat. To the pediatrician we went! No infection, just a referral to a great ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist) and a subtle hint that she would probably need surgery. Oh, my heart hurt. The puzzle fit together for me in that moment. The lack of sleep (due to the tonsils obstructing her airway and causing sleep apnea), the garbled speech (huge balloons in her throat preventing her from making clear sounds), the snoring, and the issue of swallowing. Poor, poor, Clairey!
It wasn't a surprise to us when Dr. Arnstein suggested we go ahead with surgery. He told us she would need her tonsils and adenoids removed. He said that on a range of 1-4, her tonsils were about a 3.8. NOT GOOD! We made an appointment to have surgery during summer vacation and felt good that we were going to get those nasty tonsils/adenoids taken out! One of the things we needed to do was get a blood draw within the a week of surgery. Not a hard thing for an adult, really. But for a child, the idea of putting a needle in your arm to extract blood is horrible! I talked Claire through it in the days leading up to the blood draw and Michael (who has had blood taken before) assured her that even though it sounded painful- it wasn't. So when the morning came, I drug all four kids to the clinic and braced for a tortuous experience. Claire brought her doggy named Scruffy with her and I think that totally helped. She was so nervous and to be honest- so was I. When we were called back and I saw the little room I had to bring all four kidsand a stroller into and then try my hardest to keep Claire calm and help her through the experience I thought we were doomed. Luckily, all the kids behaved and Claire- with the help of her awesome big brother and Mommy was a perfect patient. Whew. I was so glad that was over. Now we will just count down the days until surgery. I know it will be hard for her but to get rid of all four of her issues due to the tonsils will be wonderful! Don't you just love these before and after pictures? I love the after picture because she looks so incredibly relieved and happy!
Some unsolved mysteries involving Claire were recently solved. Thank you God! Mystery #1. During Claire's Kindergarten year, she was the first one up in our house. Uniform on, shoes tied, smile on her face and ready to start the day with tons of positive energy. This past school year (1st grade), Claire has hard to wake in the morning. Groggy, tired, hard to get moving. It certainly wasn't the Claire I knew but I dismissed it and blamed it on her being less excited for school. Mystery #2. Claire is a very smart little girl. She has a very vast range of vocabulary and has a lot of profound things to say. The downside? She is hard to understand. When she was a toddler and began talking, she was what we lovingly called mush mouth. Every word kind of ran into the next making it hard to understand her. I keep waiting for her speech to be clearer- but up to now, no such luck. Mystery #3. Claire is a pretty quiet sleeper. No teeth grinding like her brothers, just a bathroom break in the middle of the night. So why all of the sudden did I start hearing her snore all night long? And it's not that cute little snoring you see in cartoons, it is the 'sawing logs' kind of snoring that made me feel so bad for her! She didn't have a cold, no sore throat, and when questioned- she never said she had any pain. Mystery #4. Swallowing. Claire is an eater (a girl after my own heart) but she has the hardest time swallowing her food quickly. The only way I can describe it was that when she swallowed she had a little hitch/movement she would do about four times to get the food down.
I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, 'Hello, Lisa. She needs her tonsils taken out!' It is more clear to me now more than ever. But when you are juggling the needs of four kids and trying to keep a household running, sometimes things aren't as obvious as them seem. I never sat down and thought about Mysteries 1-4 as a group, I instead worked with each issue separately and tried to figure out what was wrong. Well, once I looked in her throat after her snoring became outrageous- I saw the GIANT tonsils in her throat. To the pediatrician we went! No infection, just a referral to a great ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist) and a subtle hint that she would probably need surgery. Oh, my heart hurt. The puzzle fit together for me in that moment. The lack of sleep (due to the tonsils obstructing her airway and causing sleep apnea), the garbled speech (huge balloons in her throat preventing her from making clear sounds), the snoring, and the issue of swallowing. Poor, poor, Clairey!
It wasn't a surprise to us when Dr. Arnstein suggested we go ahead with surgery. He told us she would need her tonsils and adenoids removed. He said that on a range of 1-4, her tonsils were about a 3.8. NOT GOOD! We made an appointment to have surgery during summer vacation and felt good that we were going to get those nasty tonsils/adenoids taken out! One of the things we needed to do was get a blood draw within the a week of surgery. Not a hard thing for an adult, really. But for a child, the idea of putting a needle in your arm to extract blood is horrible! I talked Claire through it in the days leading up to the blood draw and Michael (who has had blood taken before) assured her that even though it sounded painful- it wasn't. So when the morning came, I drug all four kids to the clinic and braced for a tortuous experience. Claire brought her doggy named Scruffy with her and I think that totally helped. She was so nervous and to be honest- so was I. When we were called back and I saw the little room I had to bring all four kidsand a stroller into and then try my hardest to keep Claire calm and help her through the experience I thought we were doomed. Luckily, all the kids behaved and Claire- with the help of her awesome big brother and Mommy was a perfect patient. Whew. I was so glad that was over. Now we will just count down the days until surgery. I know it will be hard for her but to get rid of all four of her issues due to the tonsils will be wonderful! Don't you just love these before and after pictures? I love the after picture because she looks so incredibly relieved and happy!
2 comments:
Oh, what a tough thing to have to go through for Claire and Mommy! I hope everything went ok. If she's anything like her Mom she did fine.
omg. that picture is so sweet! she's so nervous... good job Belle.
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