Alexis's Summer

I know this post is long over due!  But I want to get the story down so that I can remember the events later on.  It is an important event in Alexis's life.

Memorial Day weekend, Peter and I had our tradition of having fresh lobster for dinner!  Yum and yay!  So delicious.  The girls have both tried lobster before, but neither are crazy about it, so we don't get them their own, we share a few bites of ours.  So the night we had the lobsters for dinner, we gave some to each of them.  Alexis said she liked it and came back for a few more bites.  Right after dinner, she started complaining of a sore throat.  At first we wrote it off as a kid complaint and didn't take it too seriously.  After awhile of her complaining about it though, and her saying the pain was getting worse, we thought that maybe she was having a slight allergic reaction to the lobster, so we gave her some Benadryl and put her to bed.  She couldn't sleep and, at this point, was sobbing.  So Peter and I were worried that maybe it was a more severe allergic reaction, or maybe a piece of shell got lodged into her throat, so we took her to the United General emergency room.  After waiting hours, we finally got to see the Dr. and she looked with a flashlight in Alexis's throat and said she didn't see anything that concerned her and that it was just probably an allergic reaction and we did the right thing of giving Alexis the Benadryl.  She had the nurse give Alexis a dose of Tylenol and then sent us home.  That was Saturday night.

On Sunday, Alexis seemed better, but was still complaining of a slight sore throat.  But that night, it got really sore again, but we just gave her some more Tylenol and she seemed ok.  But by Monday morning, she was crying again of a sore throat and was now throwing up.  Peter took a flashlight and looked in her throat and saw that it was swollen.  It being Memorial Day, I knew the Dr. office was closed, so I called the emergency room triage nurse at United General and explained what was happening, to see if we needed to come back in.  She refused to give me any advice and insisted that the only way they could help was if we were to come in.  So I called our regular Dr. office to see if maybe there was a Dr. or nurse on call.  There was a phone number for a triage nurse so I called that.  Turns out it was the number for Children's in Seattle.  So I talked to that nurse, who was super helpful, and after answering all her questions, she thought that she would be OK, but if things got worse to take her into the hospital.  On Tuesday, Alexis stayed home with my mother in law because she still was not feeling well.  I called the doctor that morning and Kathy took her in.  I got a call from Peter later saying that Alexis was being taken back into the hospital, Skagit Valley Hospital this time, and there was a strong possibility of surgery that day.  So I  left school and headed there.  They put Alexis on an IV for fluids, nausea and pain medicine, and did a test for strep throat.  When that came back negative, they looked at her throat and said her tonsils were swollen and it was probably tonsillitis.  So they gave her some aggressive antibiotics and steroids and sent us home.  They weren't recommending that she have the tonsils removed at this point because usually you get it once and treat it and it won't come back.  They said that if Alexis were to get it again, they would consider that option.

We had an appointment to come back in two days, when the swelling had a chance to go down, to make sure that was all it was and there wasn't some other underlying issue.  So we did and they said the swelling had gone down and things were much better.  The steroids were only a three day regimen, but the antibiotics were for the full week +.  The steroids ended on Thursday and Alexis was her normal, playful self, but by Saturday, (which happened to be her birthday), she was in tears and complaining of the sore throat again.  I looked in her throat and sure enough it was swelling up again.  So we just took her back to the ER.  This time, I was going to demand that they just take them out.  This time they did a CT scan and they were a bit shocked at the results.  They came back saying that normally, with tonsillitis there is one pocket of infection behind one side.  Sometimes there's two or three and/or sometimes there's an infection behind both sides of the tonsils.  Alexis, however, had nine pockets of infection on one side and eight on the other.  The doctor said he had never seen a case that bad before.  So (without my having to demand it) he said the plan was to remove the tonsils.  But they had the get the infection healed before they could do that.  So they sent her home with a longer regime of steroids and the aggressive antibiotics.  This time they seemed to do the job.

We learned a lot during the next month.  It turns out the adenoids were also affected so they were going to take those out as well.  Alexis had been complaining of headaches for awhile before this all had happened.  We had actually started seeing a neurologist about the headaches.  But it turns out that the adenoids had probably been swollen for awhile, and they were the cause of the headaches.  Alexis has always had stinky breath.  Sometimes worse than others.  Again, it turns out that the tonsils probably would flare up with a minor infection from time to time, but usually heal naturally, and when she'd have the really bad bad breath, would be the times when they were infected.  It's funny.  I've been to the doctor a couple times about the bad breath, and obviously, for the headaches, and never would the adenoids or tonsils be brought up as a possibility.  Even when the neurologist said that there wasn't a concern for the headaches on their end, nothing was said that the adenoids could be a possible problem.  It was just assumed it was food or allergy induced and we were to take a log when she'd complain of headaches.  Now that is a large possibility, but not once was there a mention of "Hmmmm, I wonder if the adenoids are a problem?"  Especially, when combined with the bad breath....  Sorry, just it just seems like part of this could have been avoided if they were to put all the complaints together and look at the entire picture, rather than just focusing on one individual complaint at a time.  But honestly, I wasn't looking at the bad breath and the headaches as being related either.... but then again, I'm not a trained doctor...

On July 10th, her surgery was scheduled.  She was such a trooper!  She was nervous for it, but was more anxious to have the sore throat be gone.  The swelling had gone down, but the sore throat was a constant during the month of June.  We went in, she had the surgery to have her adenoids and tonsils removed and were home two hours later.  She slept a lot the first two days, but that third day the pain really kicked in.  But she said it wasn't as bad as the times that she was in the hospital, and said the pain was worth it and tolerable if she didn't have to ever do that again!  Such a brave, strong, wonderful young lady!