Friday, November 12, 2010

The diagnosis....

I had Sam's file from the pediatrician faxed over to the ENT the other day. When Dr. Blotter (the ENT) came into the office he was kind enough not to mention the bulging size of her ever growing folder!
He took one look in her throat and said, "Yeah...those do not look good. They need to come out." Awesome. Yes, we can wait until January (an awesome without sarcasm). Check her ears while we're here why don't we? What? She still has a hole in her left ear drum from the tubes that were taken out almost a year ago?? Awesome (yes, more sarcasm).

Proposal:
1-Take out the tonsils
2-Check the adenoids while we're in there to make sure they haven't grown back (wouldn't that be awesome?)
3-Do a sort of sheetrock patch on the hole in her left ear drum. What the heck, why not?

When Dr. Blotter and his nurse told me that when Samantha gets older and asks why we didn't take a lot of super expensive family vacations I can just show her her medical file and say, "Because we did THIS instead!" I told Dr. Blotter I am positive we have paid for his summer home. His response? "Looks like a few over at the Budge Clinic too." Gee, thanks. I hadn't noticed! Keep in mind, this is just 1...ONE...of my children out of soon to be 4...FOUR...What in the blazes was I thinking??? Apparently not about their bulging medical files!

Dr. Blotter told me that normally to fix the hole in her ear drum they would do a 2 hour surgery where they essentially life the ear drum up and graft behind and over it. However, since she's already going to be down 30 minutes for the tonsils and who knows how long for her adenoids (depends on if they've grown back or not and need to come out again), he doesn't really want to keep her under another 2 hours. So, instead he is going to a do a procedure that has a slightly (yes, I said slightly) lower success rate (still 60-70%) but takes less time. This is where they go in and do a sort of sheet rock patch on her ear drum. He said the 2 hour surgery is super delicate and finicky as well. He did it on another patient and she got the flu the next day so her ear surgery didn't take. That would NOT be awesome!

I asked if we could wait until January seeing as how it would actually be awesome to get some of our new deductible out of the way before baby comes. It helps that we'll have a whole new year of increased medical flex spending to use as well. He said that would be fine but he's fairly certain that she'll get sick again between now and then. So, (since he's so awesome - NO sarcasm) he gave me a prescription for when that happens because as he said, "It will probably be midnight on Christmas Eve and the only place open will be the ER." To which I had to say, "Or we'll be in Manti & the only place open will be the ER." He smiled and told me "Keep it in your purse!" No need to tell me twice...that last trip to the Gunnison ER in Oct. is going to cost me over $100 - not awesome.

Dr. Blotter did tell me she'll be out for about a week for recovery. Sam's excited about that. I told her I don't think she'll be so excited when it comes. In fact, I think she'd much prefer going to school when it comes! Let the drama begin!

Since we're waiting until January they haven't got a schedule that far ahead. I have to call back in mid-December to schedule a surgery time. I'm hoping I can get a time when Trav's home that doesn't interfere with either Relay for Life kickoff that I'd like to help with and that's close to the beginning of the month so she doesn't miss too much after Christmas vacation....here's to wishful thinking!

At least all our dr.'s ARE awesome (and no, there's NO sarcasm there)! That helps me have a better attitude about it. However, one thing still bothers me. How is it that my husband and I still have tonsils but now 2 of our children won't? Blame it on recessive genes I guess??

PS I got some really cute pix of the kids last night and some good video of Sam. Unfortunately, it is nearly midnight and my children (yes, all three of them) are still awake. So, I will have to post them tomorrow!