Sleep Study - Tomorrow night

annerbones

So Maggie has had 9 bouts of Step throat since January 2012. Her tonsils are permanently enlarged the dr uses a scoring system of 1-4 to say how much of a child's throat is open, Maggie is a 5. The higher the number the worse - more of her throat is closed off. Sometimes she gets excited and tells us "I did it!" When she swallows her food without choking. Last week I had to give her the Heimlich maneuver because she choked on a piece of banana.

Our insurance requires Maggie to jump through a bunch of hoops - do a hearing screening (done), do a sleep study (doing on Thursday), then maybe they will approve the surgery. The sleep study is to prove that she has sleep apnea on top of everything else. Which she does, scares me.

We have seen 3 ENT's one tried to push the surgery through without the sleep study and all this other documentation and the insurance said that she wasn't sick enough. That is why we have to do the sleep study - hopefully it will prove that she has sleep apnea and that the surgery is warranted. If not, then I don't know what I will do.

Chrysanthemum

That's crazy that you have to go through all that.

I had mine out as an adult and it was NOT FUN, but kids tend to do really well with it.

Good luck.

Klt86

Poor baby I had mine out when I was 16 and it definitely hurt but healed very fast. I hope all goes well and they let her get the surgery.

allisontb

It's crazy the things your insurance will make you go through! I have not had my tonsils out, but I have had two sleep studies done as an adult. It is physically a little uncomfortable because they put sensors all over your body (2 on your leg, thread them up your clothes, at least two on your side, several on your chest, and several on your head. You'll want to wash out her hair because the sticky stuff they use for your head is really uncomfortable. I'm not sure how if they do the same number for kids. When I had mine, there were two different tube things that went in your nose and wrapped around behind your ears. I also wore a finger monitor to monitor heartrate, I think. All the cords are plugged into a box with a strap that could go with me if I had to go to the bathroom. If a cord came unplugged during the night, they would come in to plug it in. They let me wear my own pajamas. They had cameras that could see what you were doing in the dark. Everything was very clean, and the techs were very nice. I'm sure it will be a decent experience for her.

TheOtherLovingMoms

Wow thats crazy that you have to go through all that in order for your insurance to approve the surgery. Zach had the same issues when he was 3. Including the sleep apnea. Glad my insurance didnt require a sleep study because he probably would have fought the tech lol. Good luck!!

graceinfl

Poor Maggie! I had my tonsils out at 34 and it was after years of strep and the damage caused to my tonsils. She will probably feel so much better after the first week!

annerbones

We survived the sleep study - barely. They put us up in a nice hotel where they run these tests. She did really well. And yep she had those two things up her nose they waited until the middle of the night to put those in - which led to a few painful hours where neither of us could sleep. Otherwise she did great. Won't know the results for a few weeks.

If this insurance doesn't cover it - there is good news. I got a new job and that comes with new better insurance.

Shanny

What a beating! I'm glad she did well and hope the outcome provides you both with some relief. And congrats on the new job!

pb

That's awesome she got through it. What happens if you cannot fall asleep?

annerbones

I don't know what would have happened if she hadn't have fallen asleep. But they set it up so that the little kids will crash - the require no nap that day and arrive at the hotel at 8pm, setup takes and hour. She was falling asleep on my nap.