After a few weeks Truman is now doing so much better since he had his tonsils and adenoids removed. It really is incredible to realize just how bad his breathing had become when compared to now. He doesn’t snore anymore! I used to be able to listen to him snore through the baby monitor and know that everything was OK. Now I have to check on him all the time just to make sure!
That is the good part.
The bad part is that he is continuing to have issues with swallowing. The issue actually goes back to birth. He struggled as a newborn with nasal reflux. Basically he would have milk or spit up come out his nose. His eyes also watered and his nose was always stuffy and he got a lot of infections. We had a swallow study done and the doctors thought that it was a muscle tone issue. (See all the other medical posts to learn how much I love hearing THAT as a reason once again!) Basically they thought that he wasn’t strong enough to swallow everything all the way down to his stomach so some would squeeze back up and come out his nose. So we started thickening his formula to help weigh it down and make it easier for him to keep it down. And it worked!
As time went on we slowly decreased the amount of thickening he needed and eventually he stopped needing anything at all. He did continue to have infections and suddenly his tonsils & adenoids were huge. So off we go to remove them to make him better.
After his tonsils and adenoids were removed he suddenly started having stuff come out his nose again. I was trying to feed him some ice cream a few days after his surgery and suddenly two lines of chocolate ice cream started pouring out of his nose. Freaked out I called the ENT who reassured me and said that it can happen because the soft palette can get stiff after the surgery and to give it a couple of weeks.
Typical doctor—if HE had food coming out of his nose when he ate would he wait a couple of weeks? I don’t think so.
So we waited. And waited. And while it has gotten much better he is still having some problems.
Adding to the concern we started to recognize that he had lost his consonants since the surgery. He suddenly wasn’t saying Dada or Baba or any hard consonant any more. He has all of the vowels the softer front of the mouth consonants but that was it.
So we called in the Speech Therapist. She was immediately concerned and I could tell very confused. She has recommended going back in for another swallow study. Apparently there is also a nerve that can be hit during this type of surgery that can cause speech issues. Great.
We are headed to his neurology follow up tomorrow. The hope was that he would be walking by this follow up appointment so we could remove the possibility of a few neurologic issues that we still haven’t been able to dismiss. No such luck. He is close. At least everyone tells me that. He seems like he is ready to go but as soon as he feels the lack of support he immediately crumbles. Part of me thinks it is confidence. He is just scared to let go. (Sound familiar Mommies?) The other part of me thinks it is a balance issue.
Because he isn’t walking he is officially “delayed” now at almost 19 months. That delay with the additional small motor skill delays and speech issues all add up to another trip to Genetics and scheduling an MRI to check out his beautiful brain. Something about grey matter and white matter and what’s the matter.
My little medical weirdo is happier than ever. He has also recently discovered how to fight back against his sister or anyone who wants him to do something he isn’t interested in doing. Trust me, when he whacks you across the face there are no low muscle tone issues there! He loves to clean up and then make a mess right away. And the boy can EAT! He puts it away. I swear that he should weigh 40 pounds by now by the way he eats. And he loves to try new foods. He really likes to be outside and this cooler weather has helped give him the opportunity to be out much more. Add a bath and the kid is over the moon.
The saga continues but I am much more calm. I think. I sound like I am calmer, right? Right.
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