A man, a plan, a canal, panama

We have Astrid at home now. And we have a plan. And I have laryngitis.

Astrid's condition is largely unchanged, but the paediatricians have a far better grasp of exactly what her situation is. The short-term plan is to give her a leetle more steroids, quite a lot more antibiotics, and hope that reduces the swelling. She is safe at home because she sleeps in with us so we will wake if her breathing gets difficult - it's not quiet - and we don't need to bring her in again unless she does not get all pink and lovely again after we wake her and sit her up (so far, she reliably does this completely well, she's very good at breathing while upright). And if we do, it will be in an amblyance, as Emer might say.

When she's not ill any more we will do a sleep study at home to see exactly what happens when her tonsils are a normal size, and a few weeks after that we'll have another consultation with a paediatrician at the hospital. IF her tonsils cause chronic obstructive sleep apnea, they will have to be removed eventually. Which means general anaesthetic, scalpels, lasers, whathaveyou. We don't like this option. The GOOD news is that the ENT specialist says that her history of never having had problems before makes it very likely that the problem will just go away when the tonsillitis does, and since her tonsils are getting less red already, that might be soon.

Making a contribution

One of the things that happened this past week was that we kept having Astrid terrify us, waking her up, and going in to hospital with an awake, perfectly well baby.

One night Rob remembered that his phone does video. He handed it over and I filmed her chest wall indrawing, with sound so the specific noise of the breathing was audible.

Doctors found it very interesting and informative, and it was key in making her diagnosis. It also meant that they were able to persuade me I hadn't dreamt it all and wasn't abusing NHS resources in a self-aggrandizing catastrophising way. Yay.

AND the video was so clear that they have taken a copy of it and Rob signed a consent form so that they can use it in training and postgraduate exams. Paediatricians of the future will look at Astrid's laboured breathing, listen to the rasping noises, and go away slightly more informed than they were before.