Sleep study - way overdue!

As they have been for most people, the holidays have been very overwhelming and I have barely been able to catch my breath, let alone update the blog!  Still, quite a bit has happened since my last post, so I suppose there's no better time than now to get this thing updated...

Caitlin finally went in for her sleep study on Dec. 20th!  Cherylle and I had been preparing for the worst after all the stories we'd heard - we were expecting to experience one of the worst nights of our life.  Because of this, we'd scheduled the study at a clinic in Bakersfield so we could a) leave Evan with his grandma while we took Caits to the clinic, and b) have grandma watch the kids in the morning while we finally caught up on the sleep we weren't able to get the night before.  

The first good sign came when we were given the directions to a Residence Inn to report for the sleep study.  No clinic beds for us!  We got to the hotel and were directed to the back of the complex to a two bedroom suite, where we met the tech.  She had set up her control center in the living room of the suite, with a separate laptop for monitoring each patient, and one for herself to stay occupied on the overnight shift.  There was already one patient checked in and (literally) snoring away in the other room when we got there, with a large bundle of wires snaking under the bedroom door and connecting to a computer, and you could see lots of little lines on the monitor moving up and down as he attempted to sleep.

As you can expect, Caitlin really was not interested in having lots of sensors poster-puttied all over her head, but they'd instructed us to not let her nap during the day, so she was too wiped out to really struggle.  She'd had one 15 minute power nap around 4pm, since we were driving across town from visiting my sister, brother-in-law, and Caitlin's cousin, but she already has a history of using power naps to avoid actually sleeping so it worked out perfectly.  It was now 10pm, way past her bedtime, and she was COMPLETELY exhausted!  She struggled and cried a little bit, but for the most part just sat there in my lap with a wounded look in her eyes...

Of course, despite the fact that we'd told the clinic that Caitlin was a baby, there was no crib in the room, so as soon as we arrived we'd asked the tech to request one from the hotel.  Fortunately it showed up just as the tech finished putting on all the sensors, so we were able to put Caitlin down right away.  She was really exhausted, so she griped a little about the stuff on her face, but with a little encouragement from mommy (and some gentle patting on the backside) she fell asleep.  We were blown away by how easy it had been, but decided to take advantage of it and curled up in the bed next to her and tried to fall asleep ourselves.

She fussed occasionally, but no more than usual, for the first hour, but around midnight she woke up full force, discovering (now that she'd gotten some rest) that she had stuff stuck to her face and started ripping everything off!  Fortunately the tech had spotted her waking up from the readouts and was in the room before Caitlin was able to do too much damage.  Cherylle and the tech worked together to get everything back on, and after about 20 minutes or so, were able to get her back to sleep.  She woke up a few more times, off and on, throughout the night, but not enough to interrupt the study too much, and never got more than the big breath sensor under her nose to come off...

Around 5 am, the tech came in the room and let us know that she had enough data on Caitlin's sleep patterns, and that we were free to go!  We got all the sensors off, picked up the diaper bag, and headed home, very relieved that it had gone so smoothly.  According to the tech, results usually take around 10 business days, so we should have them in plenty of time for Caitlin's next ENT appointment on Jan 23rd.

I'll try to get another one up with some holiday pics, and maybe even a little about our quick Vegas trip for those of you not on Facebook!  TTFN

Dr. Gross, ENT Part Deux

So I know it may come as a shock to most of you that I'm posting again, since it hasn't yet been three weeks since my last one, but we had such a great experience today that I thought it deserved to get written up.

So I've quite thoroughly documented our struggles with Dr. Tiller from Kaiser, the dwarfism specialist from the MAB who "doesn't believe in baselines". Thanks to Dr. Tiller, we're constantly amazed when we don't have to struggle with other Kaiser specialists, and that was reinforced again today with our followup appointment with Dr. Gross. We arrived today with a copy of the results of the followup tymps and hearing tests that the school district had done a week or two ago, and the first thing Dr. Gross did was to go over those with us. She was quite surprised that her tymps were still showing a flatline while her hearing tests showed that she was hearing at a normal level for her age, so she decided to have her own techs repeat the tymp tests. She also did a quick visual examination of Caitlin's ears and thought they really looked like they'd cleared up, so she wanted to re-test and see what was going on.

Of course, I neglected to mention that the "quick visual exam" included Dr. Gross cleaning some of the wax out of Caitlin's ears, which she did not care for at all. Aparrently different ethnic backgrounds have different earwax types, and Caitlin has inherited the "asian" earwax from mommy, which is loose and flaky and is very challenging to remove. This meant that it took several attempts to get it all out, with Caitlin screaming, crying and struggling, leaving Dr. Gross terrified that she was going to damage the inside of Caitlin's ear just trying to get a look!

Anyway, we got Caitlin back to the sound booth for the followup tymp test, which of course she fought tooth and nail, but after several attempts at each ear the tech and Dr. Gross both agreed that the flatline results had to be accurate. We got back to Dr. Gross's office to talk about what the next few steps should be - she was still mystified by the fact that her ears looked clean, she could hear, but was flatlining on the tymps. She asked about the sleep study, and we reminded her that it was scheduled for next weekend. She asked us to find out how quickly they would have the results of the study, because she'd really like to discuss those with us before scheduling any surgery. She said she really didn't feel like being very agressive about performing the surgery for the ear tubes since the ear problems didn't appear to be affecting Caitlin's hearing, but she wanted to revisit the issue when we came back with the results of the sleep study. She also wanted to be sure she didn't ignore the issue, because she wanted to make sure that Caitlin didn't end up with a disadvantage in her speech development through not being able to hear well.

While we were talking about "trip linking" and trying to do the tonsils and adenoids at the same time as the tubes, Cherylle mentioned the idea we'd had (and then rejected) of trying to do the MRI at the same time so that she wouldn't have to be sedated more than once. Dr. Gross then started discussing the procedures for having an MRI and asked us when ours was scheduled! We were both kind of in shock, and reminded her that Dr. Tiller had refused to order one. She then began insisting that she thought she'd ordered one for us. We were absolutely positive that she hadn't, but she couldn't think of why else she would have researched the procedures for kids with achon! Well, after some discussion, and a bunch of digging through her e-mail, she finally decided that she'd only been talking about it, but informed us that if the sleep study indicated any potential central apnea problems that she'd be happy to order the MRI for us. At this, Cherylle was flabbergasted - after all the fighting we had to do with Dr. Tiller just to get the referral to an ENT, here she was ready to give us the tests he'd refused to give us and without a second thought!

Well, I'm sure more will follow - Caitlin's sleep study is next weekend so there will be plenty to say about that. We also have another followup with Dr. Gross scheduled for Jan 23rd, by which point we should have the results from the sleep study. Also, this weekend we're doing a snow day at the grand opening of a local outdoor shopping mall, and following that up we're going to the LA Chapter's Holiday Party that I'm doing some basic lighting for. Ellen and Stuart are hoping to drive up from San Diego to join us for the LA party, which will be great - especially since Ellen thinks that Justin has a big crush on Caitlin - those two are so cute together! There's also a possibility that Cherylle and I will be taking a more inside role with the LA Chapter - we'll let y'all know how things turn out!

Oh, and finally, Caitlin is starting to let go and stand on her own more and more now! She did it for me for the first time Thursday when I was picking her up from daycare - letting go of Miss Lily and waving at me for like 5 seconds before dropping to the floor! She repeated it again for Cherylle today while we were taking her aunt on a tour of the Hollywood and Highland shopping complex, and she started taking more and more chances to let go and stand on her own the entire day! I think walking can't be too far away!

Until next time - here are a few pics from the last week or so :-)

The kids with daddy at Johnny Rockets while mommy and auntie go shopping!


Daddy and Evan freeze our backsides off at the California Living Museum Christmas Light Display - an annual fundraiser they do at the zoo -


A couple shots of Caitlin eating, which she loves to do - notice the ever present waffle in the second shot!


A few from today at Hollywood and Highland after the ENT appointment - the first two are Caitlin being cranky but cute, and the last is blowing kisses at Mann's Chinese :-)

Just about me, not the kids... sorry!

Well, this weekend was amusing, but kinda sad at the same time. I've been enjoying the amount of time I've been able to spend at home with Cherylle and the kids over these last few weeks of freelancing, especially after coming back from the 5 days in Palm Springs, but this weekend I ended up in Orange County working while she took the kids up to Bakersfield to visit her parents. It's always fun hanging out with the guys on the crew after the day's over, being way too loud in the hotel bar, but it's not the same as being at home with the family. You know this means I'm getting old when I start saying things like that!

I'm not sure how this works with women, since I'm not a girl and never have been in my live, but guys are trained from birth to go out and beat their chests and provide for the family. Staying out late and being independant are kind of expected, at least by other guys, since it proves you're the man and in charge and in control and not too sensitive. Me, though, while one night is fun, more than that and I'd just rather be at home with Cherylle and the kids. This makes me feel old, honestly, but it's an oldness that I'm happy with. I've always been a bit of a party animal at heart, and because of that I've always wondered when I would settle down internally and really be happy with where I am, and it's nice to see that I'm finally doing that :-)

Since I think the kids are much more interesting than me, though, I will end this with a few pics from some of their last few adventures...