Thursday, July 15, 2010

Jack and Mum's Trip to Adelaide (for Jack's sleep study)...

After approximately 2 years of waiting Jack was finally booked into the Women's & Children's Hospital on Monday night to complete a full sleep study. Jack had always had a lot of problems with breathing and sleeping at night. At one point it was so bad that he just wasn't getting a proper night's sleep at all - and neither was I. He was always waking up and calling out, which I think happened when he was holding his breath. He would kind of startle himself. And then there was the twitching and moving. It was really insane. The poor guy was so tired most of the time. The allergist we see, Dr Quinn, suggested we try a nasal spray called Nasonex. Within 2 nights we were all sleeping properly. But if we missed it for even a couple nights he would be really unsettled. So we have been giving it to him religiously for 2 years.
We took him off it for 2 weeks before this sleep study to make sure it wouldn't interfere with the results and I was SO nervous as to how he would handle it. Especially one of those weeks being his last week of his first term of school and he was already so tired! But it really wasn't too bad, so I am hoping that his airways have opened up and grown a little, and whatever may have been causing any inflammation is no longer a problem.
Unfortunately we won't know the results of the study until the end of the month when the Dr Kennedy is back from overseas. I'm a bit unsure of how much data they managed to collect because he was awake a fair bit overnight. Cross our fingers it's enough.
Here are some photos of our trip and Jack all wired up.

I had said to Jack we could spend some time talking on the way, we weren't even down the end of Thompson St before he said, 'Can we talk about something, Mum?' I asked if he didn't mind waiting until we at least got he highway! Needless to say we had LOTS of conversation on the way.
We spent Monday afternoon at Elizabeth Shopping Centre. Jack was spoilt with Maccas and a Berrilicious Sorbet (gotta love Wendy's and their Dairy Free Sorbets!)
Then it was off to BIG W to spend 2 lots of Tooth Fairy money as well as $5 from Nanna. One big Transformer (Backfire) and 2 little ones (Perceptor and Hardshell) was what he chose. Perceptor and Hardshell had a real flogging for the next 2 days. Jack carried them EVERYWHERE, threw them and bashed them against everything and he even slept with them!

Myers had a Lego colouring in competition, so we stopped for a break. We also had to guess how many pieces went into making this huge Lion that was there, which I forgot to take a photo of.
Then it was off to Maccas for tea before heading to the Women's and Children's to begin the wiring up process, which took about an hour. Fortunately they have portable DVD players, which makes the experience a little less difficult. Jack chose Shrek 3 and Rugrats.

The toys he collected over the day kept watch...
He really was brave - it must have been a bit frightening having all those things attached to you. This was the end result.
A few more minutes of Rugrats before trying to get to sleep. An hour and half after arriving. He had a bit of trouble getting to sleep. It was about 10.30pm before he finally drifted off.
He kept pulling the plugs out his nose in his sleep, so we had people coming in out all night, machines beeping, babies next door crying and then woken up at 5.30am to start the unplugging process. Not the best night's sleep I've had. This was our room.
We had a shower and tried to scrub all the paste from his hair and sticky bits from everywhere else and we landed back outside by 6.30AM! This is Jack up on the top level of the Car park. We always try to park here but a lot of the time it's full. The view hadn't changed from last night since it was still dark - but it was pretty cool looking out over the city and the cathedral in the dark. I kind of wished I had my good camera with me- my little point and shoot didn't hold up to the challenge!
We headed to - you guessed it - Maccas for breakfast, then to Carrisbrooke Park for a run around.
Then onto Munno Para for a quick look in K Mart. Jack wangled a Bouncy Ball for him and Gem out of me, which hasn't left his sight since. If Jack had no other toys but balls at the moment he would be happy.
We then headed to Freeling to visit Mel and Joel. The two boys had an awesome play while Mel and I had a good catch up. Love these photos:
It was so nice to spend all this time with Jack. Even if it was for Medical purposes! Love my boy...Jxx

3 comments:

  1. Oh wow He was really wired up!!

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  2. hope his tests come back oky..dad had to do one of those studies a couple of years ago and he said it was wierd but ok.. so fingers crossed for you and Jack..and also how good is maccas to please kids.. oh and great photos of the whole couple of days experience.. and lol about the have a talk....

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  3. Sounds like sleep aponea to me.

    Sometimes I forget to breathe when I'm awake (how's that for crazy?) So I probably have sleep aponea, too.
    I tried mum's machine when she came for a visit - it was brilliant - like being super energized. We all had a go - you should have seen us - we must have looked like oxygen stoners - so funny.
    Perhaps if I had one I'd be a totally new energetic super organised person - and not the worn out wreck I am today (LOL OK, I exaggerate a little)

    Good luck with the tests. Hate the waiting part of it all - don't you?

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