Wednesday, January 20

The lung doctors

I thought this was so cute, Tommy in his daddy's shoes. He tries so hard now to slip his feet into other peoples shoes and walk around.


Whew! It's been a busy few days and before I tell you how the lung visit went to Children's yesterday, I've got to say a HUGE thank you to Grandma Dorothy for watching the toddlers for three nights while Colin and I got away. Thank you Dorothy!!



Since Tommy's sleep apnea is severe, we were referred to a Pulmonologist at Children's in Seattle. We have never seen a lung doctor before, so the appt was almost two hours long with just questions and answers and waiting! Thanks to Grandma Sue for going with us and remembering all the answers :)



The bummer of the appt was the cd with all his xrays pre/during/post pneumonias that I hand delivered from Bellingham to Seattle in December is missing from his file and to our understanding not read yet. And then we *almost* went home with an oxymeter, but since Tommy's tonsil/adenoids surgery is on 2/25, we are going to stay on Pulmicort nebulizer 2xday and use the albuterol when he is sick, and pray that the T&A surgery makes a difference. The lung doc said that Tommy has a 50% chance of improving after the surgery. We will meet with the lung doc again in March after Tommy has mended and see if there is improvement. If none, then we will go home with the oxymeter and some other changes will be made while he sleeps. We are going to keep our next sleep study which is in April.

The doc did suggest that Tommy stays out of preschool for a week prior to the surgery to stay healthy. We all want to keep that surgery date and get this done to help him. December was our last month at Promise, which was a really hard transition, geez the boys and us LOVED that place. Now, the boys go to preschool with the school district and we have a wonderful person come into our home to take care of the boys for the afternoon hours. This was suggested by the immunologist because Tommy is compromised. It was brought up again by the lung doc yesterday that Mr Tommy's situation is "thin ice" in terms of getting a cold or other illness. He is a quick crasher and we are all taking procautions to keep him as healthy as we can.

The lung doc also suggested that the cpap mask be put on Tommy without the airflow until he just gets used to the mask. Then after a few nights of training with just the mask, we will attach the hose and start the airflow and see how that is tolerated. Right now, you put that mask on him and he becomes Mike Tyson with the arms, REALLY nice defensive moves.

So, that's the lung appointment. Tommy did great as usual, he is a champ and had big smiles.

Tommy Adventures