Thursday, March 27, 2008

Adenoid Removal

Now that I am cancer FREE I can focus on Caroline’s surgery next week to remove her adenoids. I have held back posting details until we had more information at hand. My issue was Priority 1A and Caroline’s have been 1B. If I had cancer I was going to reschedule her surgery, but now we can move forward. As you can tell Kristy and I shift from once concern to another.

Caroline has experienced major sinus related problems the last 2 years in the fall, winter and spring with constant runny nose and ear infections. She was originally treated for sinusitis but as it turns out her sinuses are perfectly clear. It is her adenoids which have bad swelling and this was shown on her CT scan after she was better (coming off antibiotics.) It is not too bad for her during the day, but went she lays down to sleep she would end up choking and eventually vomiting several times a night all over her bed. We even had her sleep with her garbage can on the bed so she could try and keep it off the bed. Horrible to see your child trying to sleep, but cannot do to the choking.

Her surgery will be 15-20 minute procedure with minimal pain and issues post operation. My biggest concern is the fact my 4 year old daughter has to get surgery. Getting anesthesia and going under the knife for anything is not good at that age. We spoke at length with her doctor, Dr. Houston, and he explained how he always tries to treat the issues with medication first, which Caroline has been doing for 1.5-2 years, and if that does not work then opt for surgery to remove the problem. He reviewed all the information we brought with us (Kristy keeps everything on our kids) and he said we took all the right steps. At this point, surgery is out only option.

I have been trying to explain to her what is going to happen and I can see this is not going to be easy. We will be talking to the doctor to work out a game plan for the day of the surgery. We pray everything goes well and she does not have any pain afterwards. I would do anything to switch places with her! Keep your fingers crossed.

LIVESTRONG!