You have probably heard me often complaining about Jacob's sleeping problem. For a while now, I have been suspecting adenoids to be the reason. His breathing doesn't sound quite normal when he sleeps - children should not snore like that! Often he wakes up in the middle of the night which is exhausting for him and also for me.
I'm even more worried about his speech delay. He does talk, but not at the level he should be at his age. I believe there is a link between sleep apnoea and learning difficulties. That's why I
decided to investigate further. Our GP referred him to a pediatrician who specializes in children's sleep study - Dr Jim Papadopoulos - to determine if Jacob has sleep apnoea and if so, how severe.I made an appointment in February and first available time in private hospital was mid April. In public hospital though, first availability was in September. So I decided to go private, which meant that we would be roughly $500 out of pocket. As time passed, Jacob started to sleep better. For couple of months he slept really well - didn't wake up in the middle of the night and didn't snore either. I started to think that I was over-reacting and worrying too much. But at the same time I didn't want to cancel just yet, just in case, so I decided to re-scheduled my appointment to June, thinking
that it would be waste of time and money to do the study while there's no problem. Well, I was right - he did get worse again.So now finally it's done! Study was done at the St George Private Hospital here in Kogarah - the same hospital where Jacob was born (it brought back some memories).
Jacob was very brave little soldier. He didn't complain at all. We had talked about what was going to happen in the hospital, at home, when we played doctors and patients. At one point at the hospital, he said to me: "I don't want to be a patient any more, I'm Jacob now. I want to go home now!" but after reassurance from me, he was OK to stay.
He was hooked up to the machine with thousand wires which made him look like a little robot. When something got disconnected at night due to moving around in the bed, the nurse quietly came into the room and connected it up again without waking him. The hospital staff was pretty good. I didn't sleep much though... the fold-up bed I was sleeping on, was squeaky and uncomfortable but I'm not complaining, it's not like I get a good night sleep every night at home anyway.
At the follow-up consultation, we found out from the results of the sleep study that Jacob does have sleep apnoea - mild to moderate - which means, it's not as bad as choking in his sleep for example but it will have long term consequences like learning difficulties and sometimes behavioral problems. Dr Papadopoulos referred Jacob to a surgeon for adenoids/tonsils operation. I have an appointment on 18th July. The surgeon will probably have a look at his tonsils and maybe adenoids as well (apparently they use some sort of tiny camera on the tube to feed it up the nose. Sounds scary!) and then decide whether to operate or not. I have spoken to many parents who's kids have had this operation and they all say it's not a big deal any more these days... Jim said his daughter Emily was in and out of the operating theatre in 6 minutes! And it took her only few days to recover. The risk of infection is not nearly as high as it use to be years ago.
So wish us luck and fingers crossed! I will keep you posted with developments.
