Garrett has pretty much been sick since he was 6 months old. Then it was ear infections... and ear infections... and ear infections... Then we had tubes put in at 11 months. Then at 13 months he began getting strep...and strep.... and strep... So after a couple months of lots of strep, the pediatrician recommended we take him to the ENT to talk about a tonsillectomy. We go and are recommended to get them removed. He told me about the possibilities of strep affecting the heart and kidneys and seemed to think that removing them would be the best bet. He had good answers to all the questions I asked... BUT there were sooo many concerns with his age and the fact that he is small. He told us that he would have to get approval from the cheif of TCH before doing the surgery... That made me very nervous, SO I called another ENT for a second opinion bc this is my baby your talking about I didnt want to have something done that had so many concerns if it wasnt necessary. That ENT was very uncertain about all of this. He was a pediatric ENT and had only ever done one tonsillectomy on a child of this age. A lot of his main concerns was that Garrett is already so low on the growth charts and doesnt weigh enough to be able to withstand the recovery of the procedure. The procedure is a harsh one for little kids and can dehydrate them very easy bc they are in so much pain it is hard to eat and drink. So doing something like this on a child that doesnt have additional weight to loose could pose serious problems and he simply did not think that Garrett could handle it. He left the room with me to call our pediatrician and they talked for a long time about the risks and benefits for him and decided that since the risks were so high for him that the did not out weigh the benefits. However, he is going to be seen every 2-3 weeks to make sure that he does not have strep and when he does that it is being treated and the make sure that the treatments are working. He is down to only a couple antibiotics that will work for him so this is exhausting his treatment plans. In 2-3 months we go back to the ENT and hope that he is large enough at that point (if he still getting infections) to have it done. Our pediatrician doesnt seem to think there is a very good chance of the infections just stopping, but if they do, we will be very glad and know that all of our prayers have worked. If he is stilling needing it done at that point, doing a procedure like that is much easier on a larger 18 month old than on a tiny 14 month old. So for now, its a lot of doctors visits and a lot of prayers that he just gets rid of whatever is causing the infections so that we dont need to have any operation done on him. Or maybe it can just be held off to him being at least 3 where the risks are lowered! =)
Anyways, thanks everyone for all the phone calls and prayers and thoughts. It was a rough couple of days with us trying to figure out what we thought the best option was for him bc of 2 completely different recommendations. I so glad our pediatrician is amazing and called me personally at 6:30 last night and talked to me for 20 minutes on her thoughts and showed sooo much care for Garrett. She explained how rare this is in such a young baby and how she has never seen a baby his age with strep so much, but that she was going to do everything she could to make sure his heart doesnt get infected and that when we have to have the surgery done that it will be when he is going to be able to handle it.
