Tonsilectomy/sleep apnea/swallowing

I haven't had a chance to update in a few weeks, but boy have we been busy. Today Connor is in surgery to remove his tonsils, do a scope of his vocal cord area and take washings of the lungs to send for a biopsy to see what he is aspirating. After the initial sleep study we saw our ENT who advised that the report showed Connor has Central Sleep Apnea which means that his brain is not signalling to his body to breath at times when he is sleeping and only one episode of Obstructive Sleep Apnea which was not considered abnormal so he recommended leaving the tonsils alone and would proceed with the scope and lung biopsy to see if anything could be done for Connor's aspiration of liquids. We were referred to a Sleep Specialist to determine if Connor should be on oxygen while sleeping for the Central Sleep Apnea.

I was lucky to get him an appointment with a Sleep Specialist at Children's hopsital the following week. As soon as the doctor reviewed the results of the sleep study and looked at Connor's tonsils, he recommended removing Connor's tonsils and going for a follow up sleep study 6 weeks after surgery. He said that even though the Obstructive Sleep Apnea did not show up during the sleep study, he still believed that Connor did have it and wanted to remove his gigantic tonsils. We are hoping that removing the tonsils will help with the swallowing problems as well.

In 6 weeks Connor will go for a follow up sleep study and they are hoping to see all sleep apnea resolved, but if he does still have episodes of Central Sleep Apnea, he will have to go for even more testing. They beleive that it is possible that Connor has a Chiari Malformation which is a problem with the brain stem that affects sleep and swallowing. I guess there is nothing we can do except wait and see and today we will focus on his surgery and recovery. He will have to go for a sedated MRI to check for this.

We have been told to expect a long 14 day recovery and I have heard some terrible stories about recovery so we are praying it is easy for Connor. Will keep you updated!

Here is Connor in the waiting room this morning prior to surgery