Yeah, I know, these two are very long words.
But these were two of the procedures that Little Guy underwent on Tuesday (23 Sep). Little Guy, all of four years of age, undergoing his first surgery. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t worried!
What are these procedures, you ask? This diagram and the links below will make things clear – what and where the tonsils and adenoid are.
I won’t go into the details of the procedures as these can be found in the same links above. There is also a very informative set of slides here.
Until I brought Little Guy to consult an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist, I had never heard of an adenoid. Tonsillectomy was a common procedure and I have some friends who had their tonsils removed. But adenoid? Something new to me! But all it took was a little Googling to find out what it was all about.
I suppose you will be more interested in why Little Guy had to undergo these two procedures. Well, here’s the story.
Little Guy used to be a very healthy kid, until February this year when he started falling sick EVERY month. He would have fever, sometimes accompanied by flu-like symptoms such as a runny nose and yellowish phlegm. I would have brushed it off as an inevitable infection as he attends a childcare centre, and once in a while, a virus does make its rounds.
But when it happened month after month, I became worried. I’m a worrier – especially when it comes to a kid having fevers frequently. After a couple of months, he stopped having his ‘monthly’ viral fevers but continued to have frequent episodes of getting thick yellowish mucus discharged from his nose and mouth – the type of phlegm that was simply irritating and difficult to get well from.
I also noticed that Little Guy snored in his sleep and slept on his tummy most of the time (he did not have this habit before). I suspected that his breathing must be affecting the way he slept. His voice had also became very nasal, as if his nose was very congested. We have not heard his former voice since February!
He then started to have frequent nosebleeds. I got even more worried. My mother-in-law said that Little Guy must be heaty and that many kids suffer from nosebleeds. Of course, I did not agree with what she said. I know my kid and I know what I have been feeding him and nosebleeds could stem from something more serious.
His nosebleeds became more frequent – by July, it happened weekly. The last straw came when he woke us up in the middle of the night and we had a shock when we turned on the lights. His nose, mouth and cheeks were bloodied, so were his pillows and his bedsheet. It was a frightening sight. I could see that Big Guy was at a loss of what to do.
My heart broke for Little Guy. Luckily he did not look in the mirror (or I’m sure he’ll burst out crying). I calmly used some wet napkins to wipe his face clean and pulled off the bloodied bedlinen. Then I had him sleep with me for the rest of the night. I could not wait for morning to come to rush him to our family doctor.
Our doctor, whom we had consulted for the viral fevers months earlier, again suggested prescribing a nasal spray. I, however, insisted on a referral to an ENT specialist. So it was three days later that we went to see the ENT specialist at the hospital.
She did some simple checks and assured us that there were no abnormal growths in his nose and that there was no cancer. She suspected that Little Guy may be showing signs of allergy to stuff in his room or stuff that he ate or used. Little Guy did a skin-prick allergy test but the test returned negative results. She also mentioned that Little Guy is a mouth-breather (breathes through his mouth). I suppose he breathes so because his nose was blocked.
That day of the first consultation with the ENT specialist was also the first time I heard of the adenoid. The doctor spoke as if I should know, but I didn’t. However, a quick search on the internet gave me the information that I required.
Since the doctor suspected that Little Guy suffered from allergies, she prescribed a steroid nasal spray and two months’ worth of a liquid anti-histamine. But all these did not help Little Guy. I hated giving him anti-histamine because it caused him to sweat a lot and made it uncomfortable to sleep.
During the two months before his second consultation with the doctor, I did my own research by sleeping with Little Guy, on his bed, for several nights.
I found that Little Guy continued to snore, had restful sleep for about four hours after his bedtime. After four hours, he tossed and turned a lot and was very restless. I felt helpless as there was nothing I could do to help him sleep better.
Two months passed and we went for the second consultation where I told the doctor that the allergy medication did not work. She ordered X-rays for Little Guy and a few minutes after that, we were able to see his X-rays on her computer screen.
Little Guy has abnormally large tonsils and his large adenoid was blocking his nasal airway (hence the nasal voice and forced breathing). So a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy was recommended. I agreed immediately. I wanted to free Little Guy from this suffering, although he did not feel so, as he was ever the active and mischievous little boy.
I now know why the areas under his eyes turn reddish whenever he runs about for just a bit. I also suspect that the reason for his being the shortest in his class (which makes him really cute) is because of his laboured breathing – growing bodies should benefit from better air, right?
So now that the procedures are done, and it will take a few weeks for him to fully recover, I anticipate a growth spurt after that. I had also explained to him, in the days before his surgery, that he’s going to grow big quickly after this. It was a great incentive to him!
And guess what? The day after his surgery, when the anesthetic had fully worn off, he woke up, stretched and asked me if he had grown taller!
Patience my son, patience!
