Serafina is getting over her ear infection. She had strep throat last month. You may be able to detect a trend. In fact, if you click on the tab "Health" at the bottom of this post, a majority will be reports of Serafina's illnesses. Why does she get sick so much? A very likely culprit is her oversized tonsils and adenoids. Back in the olden days when I was a kid, the exists of big tonsils and adenoids would send a kid to surgery. Now doctors want more evidence that the enlarged glands are causing a problem. The frequent illness are a problem but they want an even higher rate of infections to prompt surgery. Another issue for kids with big tonsils and adenoids can be sleep apnea. Serafina has been known to snore but she's also is a very restless sleeper. At her six year check up, the pediatrician referred us to the sleep center for a consult. The sleep doctor decided she needed a sleep study to see what's happening. He said I could be with her the whole night. We'd have a private room with a private bathroom and...someone would watch us sleep all night! Um, okay.
Last night was our special "slumber party" at the sleep clinic. I'd love to say I was cool as a cucumber about the whole thing, but I wasn't. I did play it cool for Serafina because I knew she was nervous about it.
Getting to the room didn't put us much at ease since there were tons of strange looking monitors, but a comfortable looking bed for her. I got a terrible little cot.
The technician was very nice and did a great job of reassuring Serafina and explaining everything she was doing. What she was doing was attaching wires.
And more wires.
And even more wires.
She told Serafina she was a rainbow unicorn.
I told her she could wear all that and be a robot for Halloween. She didn't like that suggestion.
In addition to the wires all over her body, scalp and face, she had a microphone taped to her neck, a strap around her chest and a second strap around her belly.
I had no idea how she was going to fall asleep with all that junk on her.
One last wire on the finger. She laid down and it was lights out. I was allowed to lay in her bed until she fell asleep and then I had to transfer to my crappy cot. Amazingly, she did fall asleep just fine. She woke up a couple hours later and got out of bed so the technician had to come back and help get her back in bed. I didn't sleep well, but she seemed fine in the morning. I hope they got good information because we are not ever doing that again.
The technician woke us up in the morning and de-wired her though there was a lot of goop left behind on her skin and hair. She had a long morning shower when we got home with several shampoo-ings, but she was only slightly tardy to school.
She was a sleep study superstar and I'm really proud of her. We have to wait for a week or so for the results and then we see the ENT in two weeks.
