Annie's Pulmonology Appointment

We visited Annie's new pulmonolgist here in Omaha today to help solve some of her sleep issues. Annie has sleep apnea that is rather noticeable to us when we watch her sleep. It's been going on for years, but now that she's getting older and shouldn't be taking naps during the day, especially at school, we've decided to find out what's causing her apnea and what might be needed to resolve it.

The pulmonologist today said Annie does have large tonsils and with her low muscle tone in her neck and throat, suspects that is what's causing the apnea. But of course they want to check everything out, so she'll have a sleep study on August 20th. They'll do a full EEG to watch her brain and seizure activity throughout the night, and also monitor her breathing, heart rate, and lots of other stuff. They'll even have leads on her legs to see if she might be having restless leg syndrome. It will take 2 whole weeks to get all the results back from the study, and then they'll be able to determine what kind of treatment will be best.

Today the pulmonologist suggested that most likely she would benefit greatly from a tonsillectomy, so that's what we're anticipating, but we'll see what else the sleep study shows. The good news is that they can piggy-back her tonsilectomy with her tendon lengthening surgery that she'll have sometime in September. Hopefully we can get her apnea resolved and have a happier and more alert Annie during the day!