We saw the ENT today to discuss the report, and what a day to do it - after two more-horrible-than-usual nights of sleep (and afternoons of behavior, gee go figure) in a row.
The summary is that they didn't actually have any apnea events, and each had 2 hypopnea events. That clearly makes it a negative test for sleep apnea. However, Lillian had 42 arousals during the study period (approximately 7 hours) and Kate had 100. The doctor couldn't give me an average number for arousals in a normal child, but I googled around and the number I've found most frequently seems to be approximately 3-7 arousals per night. (If you have other info, please share!) In addition, Katie snored loudly and talked in her sleep quite a bit, none of which is really news to us.
So, what it all means is a little less clear than the numbers. Their ENT feels pretty confident that their "humungous" (his words, I swear) tonsils are causing some sort of respiratory disturbance--they briefly partially obstruct the airway, which causes them to wake slightly and lose sleep quality. So it's not recorded as an actual apnea or hypopnea event, because air is still flowing, but just the extra effort required to take that breath screws up their sleep. Given that Kate has the larger tonsils and also had many more arousals, I think that's a pretty reasonable hypothesis.
Either that or it's some kind of psychosocial issue and we need to see a ped psych. Cool.
But right now I'm inclined to work on his assumption that it's the tonsils and adenoids, because it just seems to make sense. Does that sounds reasonable to you? I don't want to be so desperate to help them that I subject them to unnecessary surgery, but I also don't want to be so desperate to avoid surgery that no one here sleeps for another 4 years, KWIM?
The summary is that they didn't actually have any apnea events, and each had 2 hypopnea events. That clearly makes it a negative test for sleep apnea. However, Lillian had 42 arousals during the study period (approximately 7 hours) and Kate had 100. The doctor couldn't give me an average number for arousals in a normal child, but I googled around and the number I've found most frequently seems to be approximately 3-7 arousals per night. (If you have other info, please share!) In addition, Katie snored loudly and talked in her sleep quite a bit, none of which is really news to us.
So, what it all means is a little less clear than the numbers. Their ENT feels pretty confident that their "humungous" (his words, I swear) tonsils are causing some sort of respiratory disturbance--they briefly partially obstruct the airway, which causes them to wake slightly and lose sleep quality. So it's not recorded as an actual apnea or hypopnea event, because air is still flowing, but just the extra effort required to take that breath screws up their sleep. Given that Kate has the larger tonsils and also had many more arousals, I think that's a pretty reasonable hypothesis.
Either that or it's some kind of psychosocial issue and we need to see a ped psych. Cool.
But right now I'm inclined to work on his assumption that it's the tonsils and adenoids, because it just seems to make sense. Does that sounds reasonable to you? I don't want to be so desperate to help them that I subject them to unnecessary surgery, but I also don't want to be so desperate to avoid surgery that no one here sleeps for another 4 years, KWIM?
). Both girls had a sinus arrythmia, which Dr. Google said is quite common in children. Still worth mentioning.
