Crazy Busy: Matt's Pre-Op Physical

Matt had his pre-op physical today. We've been concerned about some constipation that we couldn't get resolved - parents who have dealt with the severe and chronic form of this problem will sympathize. We tried everything, and I mean everything to get the problem to pass (no pun intended).

We think things are finally going in the right direction, but the nurse practitioner ordered a KUB (a x-ray of the abdominal area) to make sure things were cleared out before surgery. After a tonsillectomy, the standard protocol in our area is to place the child on Tylenol with codeine - and narcotics tend to cause constipation in even "typical" kids. In any case, I should have the results of the KUB this afternoon.

They also drew blood to make sure Matt doesn't have celiac disease or a thyroid disorder, since those can cause chronic constipation. It took four nurses to hold him down for the blood draw - he is not a fan of needles.

The nurse also detected a heart murmur. Matt was born with a small hole in his heart and we thought it had closed up (he never had a follow-up echo to verify). The murmur, in conjunction with the rare PVC's on his sleep study report, raise a bit of concern. He's having an echocardiogram tomorrow morning to verify that his heart is OK before he is put under general anesthesia on Thursday.

So far, our week looks like this:

Monday: Nolan's pre-op in Buffalo (check)!
Tuesday: Matt's pre-op, bloodwork, and KUB (check)!
Wednesday: Matt's echocardiogram
Thursday: Matt's bronchoscopy, tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy
Friday: Nothing. Thank goodness.

As a side note, I am glad they are looking at Matt's airway. His tonsils are not especially large, and this is a similar situation to Nolan's apnea (which was not caused by tonsils and adenoids). If it is a malacia causing the apnea and not big tonsils, then we need to address that issue separately. I still hope the tonsils are the issue, though, as sometimes the tonsil beds are large and they can't visualize how big they are from the front of the mouth.