So Much Strep!!!

Poor little man!  Take a minute to look at that photo if you an handle it.  Ouch!  On New Years Day M's throat looked like this and it has not changed much since then.  By the end of February M was on his FIFTH round of antibiotics for Strep.  As you can see in the picture, his tonsils are quite large.  Apparently the Strep just wants to live and live in the tonsils and nothing seems to be killing it.  He is off meds right now and we are attempting to treat his tonsils naturally.  His throat isn't super red right now, but his tonsils are quite enlarged.

Last month it became obvious to us and to the Dr's that M would need surgery to remove his tonsils. He will essentially continue to have bacteria going crazy back there until the tonsils are removed. M has surgery scheduled for March 25th.  The date seemed way too far away when we scheduled it, and it is now coming up quickly.  If you think of him, please pray for him that day and following.  It is a very routine surgery, but recovery can be brutal.

M is having surgery at our Children's Hospital which is only thirty-five minutes away without traffic about an hour away from our home.  His ENT is lovely.  She is a mom and has a son who somewhat recently had his tonsils out.  Oh how this comforts me to know that she is giving advise as an expert Children's ENT AND as a expert mom!  He (and I) will get to stay overnight in the hospital.  It can be an outpatient surgery.  The problem is many kids throw up quite a bit in the first 24 hours.  Because the surgical site is not stitched there is a lot of bleeding.  If you know me well you know that I am 1. prone to panic and the sight of blood and 2. hate the sight of blood.  Therefore, it is great to stay in a place that handles blood well.  I will have comfort that something terrible is not happening... that he is having a normal recovery.  M will also get ice chips and frozen treats on demand and a bed that can do tricks so hopefully that will help sweeten the deal.

Besides the sore throats we have noticed another big symptom.  With the enlarged tonsils comes some intense snoring.  VERY intense snoring.  I just told Brandon today that I will have to find a new way to figure out when is M is really asleep after his surgery.  There is no way for him to fake sleep now.  His breathing/snoring is intense.  It often sounds labored.  Unlike the frustration of hearing adults snore, hearing your child snore and have labored breathing keeps you up at night praying that they will keep on breathing.  I am so looking forward to the potential for better sleep after the surgery and recovery.  Please note, I didn't say it was a promise, but I am hopeful.

We do have some good news to report on the potential "second surgery."  A couple of weeks ago M asked me to look at his teeth.  He has always had a dark area on one of his back molars.  Grandpa Tom looks at it each time we see him and it is always fine.  When I looked at his tooth I was shocked.  I could not believe what I was looking at.  It looked like part of the top of his tooth fell off exposing some nasty brown stuff.  M wasn't screaming in pain, but I was almost screaming inside looking at the tooth and was worried that at any moment intense pain would come.  As soon as Brandon came home I had him look at the tooth.  He said, "Are you sure there isn't some food stuck on it?"  (No honey, that is what the tooth looks like... Yikes!) Brandon texted a photo of the tooth to his dad and we waited for his response.  (I opted to not share this photo as it isn't pretty, but if you really want to see the tooth M will be proud to show you anytime!)  M was continuing to say the tooth didn't hurt and we were so thankful.  Tom and Brandon's sister both agreed that action needed to be taken.  We were hoping that a procedure could be done on the tooth while he was having the tonsillectomy.  This way he would be asleep and not know what was happening and the Dr's at Children's are great.  With lots of calling from Tom and me we could not get things to line up.  In the end we decided that it couldn't work and that he would have to have a procedure done on a different date.  Brandon parents were here last week to celebrate Brandon's Birthday (another post coming) and Tom looked at the tooth.  He gave us the great news that the tooth is fine.  It looks nasty, but it is strong and stable and there is no need to do anything to it right now!  We are so thankful to God for closing the door on a Children's procedure that would have been expensive and not necessary!

Thanks again for your prayers for all of us during this Strep/Surgery season.  We are hoping that the surgery and recovery will bring an end to this season of sickness.