More Speech/Feeding Therapy!

As I mentioned before, speech/feeding therapy is my new focus for Callie in this new year.  After a bit of negotiating, I am happy to report our county has now agreed to provide Callie with one hour of speech therapy per week.  So she will now have a weekly session with a county therapist in our home as well as continue to attend her weekly private session at the hospital's therapy center. The new county therapist stopped by twice in the last week and made a good first impression. She seems very experienced and I liked her soft manner with Callie.  She also has a strong feeding background, so she will work on both types of therapies during our sessions.  I am optimistic that these additional sessions will really benefit Callie!  

Here are pics of our little girl having fun during her hospital speech therapy session today.  :-)

Sleep Study Results

Today I met with the doctor at our sleep center to review Callie's results.  Our little girl has sleep apnea.  :-(  The report I received describes how comprehensive the test was:  "A Sensormedics SomnoStar polysomnograph recorded EEG, eye movement, chin EMG, airflow, microphone, chest and diaphragmatic excursion, EKG, leg EMG, body position, and capillary oxygen saturation. Lo-lux CCTV input was recorded digitally for later review."  Wow!  So I guess they can accurately make a diagnosis.  

The overall respiratory disturbance index (RDI) was 12.3 per hour.  Her overall AHI (apnea-hypopnea index) was 9.0 per hour; 27 apneas, 34 hypopneas, 22 RERAs were present.  The longest duration of the respiratory event was 23 seconds (!) and the average duration was 10 seconds.    At one point her oxygen saturation dropped to 86%.  The microphone recorded frequent moderately loud snoring.  Her official diagnosis is "Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome with mild oxygen desaturations".  

At least this confirms we are making the right decision to remove her tonsils and adenoids.  Callie's surgery is scheduled for February 2nd.  Her ENT will also place ear tubes at that time.  Hopefully we will see some positive changes in her health and sleep, and maybe even with her speech and feeding in the upcoming months.  

Sleep Study

Last night Callie went to a local sleep center for a sleep study.  We checked in at 8:15 PM and about 45 minutes later they wired her up.  It was similar to our experience with EEGs, but less probes on her head and more on her little face.  Unfortunately it turned out to be a bad night for our appointment because just hours before going in she vomited and came down with a 102 degree fever.  I talked to the doctor and we decided to go through with the test.  Callie was restless until 1:30 AM, but then gave in and slept soundly until about 5:45 AM when they stopped the test, unhooked her, and sent us home.  She was back in her own crib sleeping soundly by 6:30 AM.  A special thank you to Callie's wonderful nurse Yolander who came with us and stayed with Callie while I slipped home and took a nap (since we live minutes from the sleep center)!


I am praying the test was successful and not something we have to repeat.  The results will be available this Friday.

Another ENT Update

Two and a half weeks ago I wrote about how Callie had ongoing congestion, went through two rounds of antibiotics, and still had an infection in her right ear.  After the fever I mentioned, we ended up filling the third antibiotic prescribed by her pediatrician and finally the runny nose and cold symptoms cleared.  Today we went to Dr. Silva's (ENT) for a follow up appointment.  He advised her ears are still filled with fluid and her right ear is still infected!  He went ahead and prescribed antibiotic #4, Augmentin.  Crazy!  Since she has now had fluid in her ears for 6 months and multiple ear infections, we agreed it is time to move forward and get her ear tubes.  In addition he performed a nasal endoscopy and discovered her tonsils and adenoids are very large.  This unfortunately means he also recommended that they be removed.  Hopefully it will not take too long to get the surgery scheduled.  At least the tubes, tonsillectomy, and adenoidectomy can all be performed at once although I really hate that she has to go through all of this.  Now that we have decided what to do, I am anxious to get it over with.  And I am holding out a little hope that these changes might possibly help her speech and/or feeding.  We will see.  

In the meantime Callie's sleep study is scheduled next week.  We will hopefully find out whether or not she has apnea.  If so, it will help confirm removing her tonsils is the right decision.

Here is a picture of our little girl tonight.  She loves her doodle boards and you can see how well she holds the pen.  Her hair is getting long and she is starting to look so grown up.  Love her!!  :-)