ENT Appointment

Overall, it was a good appointment. At least we have a tentative plan of action...

Basically it comes down to a surgery date of November 12, but there's a lot that goes into that. Our doctor said that he REALLY hesitates to do it under the age of 2, but depending on exactly how many cases of strep she's had, the risks of "underage" surgery will outweigh the risks of leaving her with the tonsils. He said that recurrent strep infections can cause heart and liver damage! I didn't know that! Our Ped sent over some of her past strep tests, 5 positive and 2 negative. They only went back to April. I told him that she's had it WAY more than that! His other hang-up was that he's not sure if he'd like her to have an immunology workup before we proceed with surgery. He said he'd talk to our Pediatrician, find out her exact number of strep cases, and just talk to her in general about how she feels about Kate's history and moving forward from here.

So the plan of action is that the next time Kate gets sick, the ENT wants to see her. He wants to be the one to swab her and send it off to his lab, to see if for whatever reason there's a difference. He wants to see what her tonsils look like when she's sick. He said, "For that matter, let me see what they look like healthy." He looked in and commented how huge they were! He said that just shows him how many times they've been infected, just how enlarged they are. After that he seemed less concerned about getting an immunology workup. He said one thing that Kate has going for her is her size. He said she does NOT look like the typical 17 month old that comes through his office! He said she looks more like a 2 year old, in terms of weight and size. (That's my girl!)

We have an appointment one week before surgery to go over where we're at. If she doesn't get sick between now and then, we'll postpone the surgery another month. Jeff and I are pretty sure it won't be more than a couple of weeks, however, before we're in his office with strep again!