Mckenzie update

Mckenzie has been sick way more often than we'd like. Last summer it was recurrent ear infections, she had tubes placed in her ears last September. Ear infections have been a thing of the past, last winter she started getting croup and other nasty illnesses very often. I think we're at 5-6 bouts of croup between winter and now. Each one has required an ER room visit, and one she had stridor (trouble breathing like she'd just ran a marathon) with croup that required her to be transported via ambulance....so scary and of course Jeremy happened to be out of town. Every time we'd go to the ER shed get a dose of oral steroids and shed be good, but typically with in a few days shed have a cold, bronchiolitis, and twice shes had pneumonia.

Doctors thought part of it was due to her being in daycare, kids in day care are sick something like 8-12 yikes per year...yeah basically once a month! Finally after this last bout of croup she kept making a noise as if you would if you were excited or startled. I took her back to her pediatrician and asked her thoughts, she agreed the number of times of her getting croup was too many. We were referred to an ENT doctor, when I called she was booked until the end of September! Her pediatrician made a call and had us worked into the schedule within a week.

We had a consult with her ENT yesterday. Her pediatrician said she wondered if part of Mckenzie's airway was narrowed slightly, which in small children a bit of narrowing is a lot. She said the ENT would probably want to do a bronchoscopy (camera down her airway). We went in and they decided To put a small tube into her nasal passage which they could see into the throat, do they put numbing drops in her nose which of course she was NOT happy about. They told us she would hate it but would take hour 45 seconds to a minute. She was wrapped up and Jeremy held her against him. They went in and the doctor let me take a peek because her tonsils which were really enlarged and inflamed. She wss given her first lolly pop after that and was a happy camper again. So the doctor recommended we do the bronchoscopy which she has to be under for, check the airway to ensure it looks good which she thinks will be fine but wants to rule that out. Her recommendation was to plan to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. The quick peek I had definitely showed her tonsils being inflamed and enlarged. She really thinks the tonsils are the culprit, which makes total sense for the recurrent croup and constant sickness. She recommended removing the adenoids because the fluid drains to the ears, and with her history of recurrent ear infections she thought we should remove them then. The other thing she noticed is that she is also tongue tied enought that she needs to have that clipped which they will do at the same time. Poor baby, she will need to stay at least one night in the hospital, they said as long as she's eating okay and drinking enough fluids then she can go home. I guess most kids want and can eat right after surgery.

She said kids bounce back much quicker with the tonsillectomy and adenoids than adults. I actually had my tonsils removed in college because of constant illness, once I got the, removed I wasn't getting sick hardly at all.

I'm hopefully and optimistic that this will take care of things so she doesn't keep getting sick so often, a little cold I can handle. She's such a trooper when she is sick, but I'm looking forward to her getting healthy!

Thankfully ER have really good insurance through Jeremy's work, we've met her out of pocket max with our health insurance between multiple ER visits and doctor visits, so it'll all be covered with no more out of pocket.

Her surgery is scheduled for Monday, July 30, 2012. She will be out of daycare for about a week. I'm so thankful to get a ton of vacation time, I'm planning to take the week off but may do part of the week and Jeremy the second half, since I'm still working from home. It's difficult to work at home because for whatever reason the noise travels even though My office door is closed, so tentatively I'm going to take the full week off.

Thats what's going on in our household, we have a busy July coming up, a good friend is getting married in Washington and Jeremy is in the wedding.

Keeps some good thoughts and prayers for Mckenzie that she will have a safe and successful surgery that gets her back on the path to being healthy.