Sleeping Beauty

I went to the pediatrician yesterday and it turns out I have a chest cold. They didn't want to give me any medicine just yet because I wasn't technically wheezing, so they gave Mommy a prescription for an oral steroid and said I could get it if I started wheezing. Whatever--you know Mommy didn't wait! Why would we wait for the wheezing...so we can wind up in the ER with pneumonia again?! So we got back from the doctors and I had a fever and was feeling pretty rotten. Mommy laid me down for a nap at 1:30 and I was out cold 15 minutes later. And...I didn't wake up until 9:30 this morning. THAT'S 20 HOURS! Can you believe that? Mommy said she wasn't concerned, because I wasn't on any crazy new medicine, and it's not like I was comatose. It must have done the trick though, because I have been in a much better mood today. No fever, I ate all of my breakfast and lunch, and I have been playing all day. I am totally sick of the breathing treatments though. They REALLY annoy me sometimes!

Poor Mommy thought everything was better and avoided another trip to the hospital. Then she gets a phone call from the sleep study office. They want me to come in right away for another sleep study, this time while I'm wearing the CPAP mask (that's the sleep apnea machine). Mommy froze and almost dropped the phone. She just couldn't believe it. The nurse wanted us to come in this weekend. Mommy told her no, that I have a chest cold and that wouldn't make for a very accurate result. So now we have to go Wednesday night. Ugh!!! Mommy went out to the mailbox to see if the results were there, and they were. Even though most of my numbers were dramatically better, they are apparently still bad enough to be considered severe obstructive sleep apnea.

Here's what my test said:
1. Last time my O2 level at it's lowest was 74%. This time is was 82%.
2. Last time I spent only 70% of sleep time with an O2 level above 90%. This time I spent 93% of my time above 90%. Much better!
3. Last time I had 330 episodes of shallow breathing, or obstructive hypopneas. This time I had 198. Still a lot, but still much better! And I slept for 100 more minutes, so that number is even better than it sounds.
4. Last time my apnea/hypopnea index (the number used to determine severity) was 60.1. This time it was 33.7. Way better! But unfortunately, if you can believe it, the normal level is 1 or less.

Mommy talked to Dr. Pollack, my genetics doctor, about the new results. Dr. Pollack can sometimes look at things like this with more common sense than just my numbers compared to the normal numbers. Mommy said she knows there is no way I am going to sleep with this machine, and it's going to dry out my nose and cause nosebleeds just like the oxygen did. Dr. Pollack completely agreed, but she pointed out that it's just one night, we have nothing to lose by doing the study on the machine, and if I do tolerate the CPAP, then all the better for me. If I don't, she said, then we've done what we can and we have to pick our battles. There's already been an obvious significant improvement in my sleep--Mommy knew that before these results came in. So I guess we are going for another sleep study, and Mommy might just have to draw the line after that!

P.S. Mommy just got a phone call from the nurse at the ENT's office. She has referred us to Dr. Ruiz, a craniofacial surgeon. The ENT seems to feel that craniofacial surgery could help further. Mommy should have been happy with the CPAP machine apparently! That type of surgery seems a little extreme, and it looks like we are going to have to make another phone call to Dr. Pollack for advice! Good thing there's lots of chocolate in our house!