ENT Excitement

Annie had an appointment with a pediatric ENT at Children's this week. After a wonderful, leisurely, relaxing drive down to Boston in the rain (ha ha ha!), we met with the doc's assistant. She took Annie's history and then warned us that the doctor probably would want to put a small camera down Annie's nose to take a look. "Kids usually cry," she said. "But that's good. It opens everything up and the doctor can see things better."



"We'll see," I thought to myself. They said the same thing before the chest x-ray several months ago, and our sweet, easygoing girl didn't let out a peep. I didn't say what I was thinking out loud though, thinking that maybe I'd be wrong and this time she'd find the test objectionable. She's older now, after all. She has definitely found her voice ... like when you take something away that she wants to play with!


The doc was nice. Soft spoken and thorough. (We were told by the swallow specialist up here that he was the best. I think she was impressed that we got in to see him so quickly. Thanks, Dr. Lightdale!) As reported, he wanted to take a look at Annie's throat with a small camera inserted in her nose. They had me hold Annie on my lap, facing the doc, and holding her arms down. (Oh, boy.) Our little trooper didn't let out a peep -- not when the camera went down the first nostril and not when it went down the second! When I turned her back to me (after it was done), her eyes were all watery but that was it. What a girl! And you should have seen the smile she bestowed on the doc when he handed her a sticker! You could tell all was forgiven.


Long story short ...

1. Annie needs to have a CT scan of her nose/head at some point. There's no rush on this, but it needs to be done. It turns out that the dimple in her nose could be indicative of a problematic condition. Neither Scott nor I can remember the name, but it involves skin being in the nose as opposed to just cartilage. It can be seen as a dimple in the nose or in other ways. (The questions for which prompted me to tell the doctor that the dimple in Annie's nose didn't represent an unborn, parasitic twin!) A CT scan will need to be done at some point to rule out any complications from her ... yes, from her DIMPLE. :-) Bad news is that a CT scan will require sedation. Sigh.


2. We'll repeat the swallow study in Boston next month, mostly because we believe Annie's swallowing skills are headed in the right direction. The doc is going to give her a chance to prove it by doing another swallow study and comparing it to the one we did in July. If this study is normal, we go on our happy way. If it's not, we head to the OR (and sedation again) for the doc to take a better look at Annie's mouth/throat/vocal chord construction.


She really sounds better ... so here's hoping the swallow study next month will reflect that! Meanwhile, the countdown to the last echo of the year has begun. (Translation: I can feel the butterflies in my stomach already.) Less than one month until that day .... I hope it will contribute to a BIG celebration at her birthday party on Nov. 3!!