ENT Does Not Mean Ent

Warning: Lord Of The Rings reference in title.  This post actually has nothing to do with Lord Of The Rings, it is merely the ramblings of a tired parent.

As if on cue, the night we heard from the sleep clinic Asher started gasping in his sleep and waking up crying in fear.  This has happened every night since.  So, when we called to set up our consultation session with the doctor in charge of the sleep clinic and they told us the first opening was in mid-February, we were understandably concerned.  After we explained to them what has been happening, they put us on the top of the 'Cancellation Wait List'.  So far, his appointment has been moved to mid-January.

The nurse at the sleep clinic made sure to tell us that Asher won't die in the night because of these gasping fits.  For some reason this was very reassuring to Adam and served to freak me out.  Not sure why the difference there.  Maybe it has something to do with Adam always being the one to see the worst case scenario right from the start and me being a bit on the optimistic side; he had already seen all the things that could happen in his own imagination while I was tripping blissfully along thinking it'll stop sometime soon.

Anyway, we've learned that if we can get into him as quickly as possible when we start hearing the gasping start, he won't cry and will fall right back to sleep.  It's a little hard to do at 3 or 4 in the morning when we're really groggy but we're getting it down to a science.  He also seems to be getting used to it and has been able, on occasion, to fall back asleep after an episode with little to no help from us.

Last week, when I was sitting in on Asher's speech therapy appointment I talked to the therapist about our concerns and what's been happening.  She recommended a local doc who also works at Children's, an ENT doctor who has seen a lot of the kids connected with the therapy office.  He can see Asher at the end of December.

The ENT appointment will just check the obstructive sleep apnea.  We still will need to get in to the sleep clinic to check his other apnea and the REM sleep he is missing out on.

That is all the update I have for now.  Caedmon continues to chug along and heal. His energy is back and he is as rambunctious as he can be with a full leg cast on. You can't keep that guy down for long.