Sleep Study

Yesterday Tom went to the sleep disorders clinic in Wahroonga (SAN) hospital. The idea was to do a sleep study to test what it is that is keeping him awake all night. The doctor said it could be one of three things, restless leg syndrome which can be treated with drugs, nasal/adenoids which can be treated by removal or behavioural.
We pretended that Tom was going to be an astronaut and go up in a spaceship, and we wired him up to the machinery. He had pipes in his nose, electrodes on his head, a microphone under his chin and his arms and legs were also wired up. 36 wires in all, which was awful - way more than i had expected. Tom actually fell straight to sleep (i think he was in shock) but woke after about 2 hours and proceeded to cry, shout, get angry and then get distraught to the point where i had to tell the nurse to unwire him (after 2.5hrs of unrest), he was going home. So at midnight we came home and i felt awful for putting him through such an ordeal.
We did get a call from the clinic to say we needed to go see the ENT specialist which means they were able to get enough info and i suppose we'll need to remove adenoids, but for now we will just wait it out, continuing to take iron supplements as these seem to have made the world of difference.

update Oct '10: Tom now sleeps through 6/7 nights and we haven't yet been to see the specialist!

Iron Man

Well I finally took the bull by the horns and went to see a pediatrician about Tom's sleeping - or lack of it. We spent a good hour discussing all aspects of his routine and family history. Dr Deloughery was certain by the end of our visit that he wasn't waking because of sleep apnea but thought it was a combination of him 'playing' me and also something else.

He sent us off for blood tests to check levels of Ferratin - as we'd discussed Tom's reluctance to eat meat and his general fussiness over any foods. I was instructed to cut down significantly his intake of milk - too hard thought I - so that he becomes more hungry. We also had to have a head X-ray to check the size of his adenoids.

The Blood test obviously knocked him for six - I was a bit shaky too. And the little might fell asleep in my arms in the waiting room of the X-ray clinic. I don't think he's done that since he was a few months old!

Anyway the results are in and yes his iron levels are extremely low (13 when  'normal' levels range from 30-150) - so he is know taking an oral iron supplement. I was told not to expect too much too soon as it can take months for the iron stores to begin to build up and the bone marrow to grow. But at least I have something to peg it on. I've also just finished a book recommended by a friend called Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall. She has lots of useful suggestions and scenarios for help - one of which is so simple but the fact that maintaining body temp at the right level can make all the difference. So armed with this we are now on a mission to get Tom sleeping through the night and I have to say (quietly without risking jinxing it all) that so far we are seeing small improvements. Yippeeeee.