Tonsils are bye-bye for Quinn

We tried to get a picture of the humungo tonsils but we mostly just got a picture of his cruddy nose.  :)

We have had a few months now of getting ready for today...surgery day.

Quinn got his tonsils out today and it has been a process...a process of anxiety, sadness, the uncertain and now...the pain.

This morning we checked-in at 9am and he went in for surgery a little bit after 10.  He was hungry but he did really well and really didn't complain about not eating and drinking as much as I thought he would.  (I was starving and ended up raiding the vending machines while he was in surgery...I tried not to eat in front of him but I am used to eating a lot of food pretty much all morning long)

After surgery was a little bit different.

I could hear Quinn down the hall as he was leaving the recovery room and he was not happy and was just ready to be held by his mommy or daddy.  He had a lot of thrashing and kicking at us...and screaming.  He had lots of screaming.  I would say that he doesn't have a great sense of pain management.  He does have some great words though and he knew what he wanted when he repeated over and over, "I want to go home."

Quinn had a few doses of some pain medication to help calm him down a bit and after about 2 hours of holding him and getting him back to normal a little bit...we got to go home.  The ride home was eventful and he almost took my arm off as I was trying to hold his hand while he was screaming...but he just wanted to rest and be held.  Who could blame him for that?

He is actually sleeping now and will be up soon with some more screaming I am sure...but I wanted to share a few pictures from our day and quotes from today:

Quinn:
"I want to go home." - said this about a million times today
"Help me, momma." - this one just about breaks your heart

Micah
"Where are his tonsils?  Did Quinn get to bring them home?"

Checking out his bracelets.  1 for his name.  1 for his allergies.

Little Quinn before surgery.  He was very brave...and had a little bit of help with that.  ;)

The screaming and kicking finally stopped long enough to enjoy a popsicle.  

The only thing that he wanted to do...play DS...other than going home.

1 to 2 weeks of this (probably more like the 2)...someone is wanting his mommy.  

Why do tonsils do that?

Our little guy, Quinn, is just not a good sleeper.

In the last couple of months he likes to wake up either several times in the night or at least once.  He is a very loud snoring machine and sometimes I can hear him in our living room when he is sleeping upstairs.  Quinn has also had a few issues when he has had a cold lately.  One night in particular you could hear his breathing being changed because everything was just swollen and air wasn't passing through as it needed to.  That was a night where I propped him up and held him most of the night...a bit on the scary side too.  I've also noticed...but wasn't really paying much attention to it until now...that the sound of his voice is different.  He is sounding more congested but he doesn't have a cold.

The last few times we went to FastCare (the kids call it SlowCare...because sometimes it takes forever) the different doctors that we saw mentioned that Quinn seemed to have rather large tonsils.

My response the first time was, "Ok".  Seriously, what was I supposed to do with that information?

When we went another time and the same comment was made by a different doctor it started to get me thinking.  When the comment was also followed by, "you may want to think about taking him in to be seen about those tonsils" I then realized that these comments were more of medical observations that really meant...your son has humongous tonsils and they need to come out.

Today Quinn went to his actual doctor...we waited for an eternity...and then got the prognosis that I guessed was coming.  Quinn has humongous tonsils and they need to come out...most likely.  We have to follow the next step though and go to ENT in January to get their opinion since they have the final say.

Here is what Quinn has and it sums up pretty much all of Quinn's symptoms:
Tonsillar Hypertrophy

Manifestations

• varying degrees of disturbed sleep which may include:
• loud snoring
• irregular breathing
• nocturnal choking and coughing (only when he has a cold does he choke)
• frequent awakenings
• sleep apnea
• dysphagia

Daytime hypersomnolence is also a symptom that may occur or happen when a person is recovering from an illness.  Quinn did have this when he was getting over his last cold and had symptoms that were very similar to mono...slept all the time and would just fall asleep and take a nap on the floor in the middle of the day.  It was so strange but it wasn't mono...we had him tested for that.  

January 23rd we should know what the next step is for our little guy.  

If he has surgery does that mean we all get to eat ice cream for a week?  :)

Here is a picture of what tonsils look like.  Number 1 is pretty normal.  Number 4 is the worst and has more than 75% of the airway blocked.  Number 3 has between 50% and 75% of the airway blocked by the tonsils.  Quinn is at number 3 on a normal day when he isn't sick.  The back of his throat looks identical to grade 3+.