Where we stand....

So our CT scan went very well, Tae truly is a doctor pro at this point. The Tech had actually called me to talk about the appointment prior to our arrival because she was nervous that T would not be able to do it. Basically Tae had to sit in an exam chair (with a booster seat too) have her head strapped back, across her forehead and under her chin, she had sit completely still with her eyes closed for 20 seconds, while the machine went around her head. The tech said it was the clearest scan she had ever gotten for a child Tae's age. So, below are two imagines to illustrate what they were looking for, the first just shows where the sinuses are, the second is and example of an actual scan. When you are in the doctors office you look at the scan on the computer and they can actually rotate that image in every direction and you can see every inch of the inside of her head from every imaginable angle.

An illustration of the sinuses
Actual CT Scan...NOT OF TAE

In case you are not familiar with an x-ray or a CT scan, anything that is black on the image is air, anything else such as bone or tissue appears as white.

So following our scan I went to schedule our follow up visit and in short was told that the next opening was APRIL 29TH!!! After a brief explanation of why that would not work AT ALL, the receptionist told me that they would check with the doctor and give me a call to let me know when I would need to come back. Not really a time where suspense is enjoyable :(

8 am on Friday morning I get a call that I will need to bring Tae back to the ENT at 1 pm to go over the results of her CT scan. Once at the the doctors office Tae and I waited in our room for what felt like an hour (maybe 15 minutes) to be greeted by our DR with the welcoming phrase of...

"Hi, nice to see you again, was just refreshing myself on T's CT scan and this is going to be very interesting"

Wow that was reassuring?????

So he pulled up her scan and we went over it and over it. Basically if you look and the example scan above, the entire left side of the scan was white, no air at all, the right side of the scan had about 75% of white, very little black and what was black was only a small section of sinus that should have been mostly black, instead of mostly white. Confusing to explain. T's sinus cavities should be filled with air, instead they are filled with infection. I asked about the pink eye that she supposedly had a few weeks ago, and he said that was not pink eye it was just the infection trying to get out!!!!! This was the part that he was referring to as "interesting". This was our not so little but hidden culprit, this was the root of all our problems. This is the cause of the cough, the ear infections, the runny nose, and the pneumonia! Can you imagine the headaches that this girl has had for I don't know how long. 90% of her sinuses are impacted with infection! So here we have diagnosis #1: Chronic Sinusitis. He was very clear that this is considered a disease.

Next we went over the adenoid, at first glance it didn't look quite right so I asked "is it bigger than normal?" Response "Oh, it's HUGE!" Apparently Tae's adenoid is so large and infected that it is blocking 70% of her airway. It is so large that it is blocking all drainage of her sinuses (not that they can drain at this point) and leads us to diagnosis #2 & #3, Chronic Adenoiditis and Adenoid hypertrophy.

So our summary is adenoid hypertrophy, chronic adenoiditis, chronic otitis media (ear infections), eustachian tube dysfunction (ear drainage) and chronic sinusitis. We feel absolutely terrible for our little girl, no wonder she isn't feeling well. No wonder she looks like she is drowning :( she can't hear, she can't stop coughing, she can't breath and her head is literally filled with infection.

Ears are not a huge concern anymore, once they insert the ear tubes she shouldn't have any more pain and she should be able to hear so clearly that she may complain about sounds being too loud. After about 6-8 months the tubes should fall out on their own, if not they will be removed.

Adenoid and Sinusitis hopefully are linked and I was told the removal of the adenoid as well as prolonged antibiotics in most cases clear up the chronic sinusitis. T will be monitored for the next 6 months to see how the infection is clearing. If the sinus problem is not resolved in that time, they will have to perform endoscopic sinus surgery; a very big deal, especially in small children. It is necessary to clear the infection because there is only a thin layer of bone that separates your sinus cavities from your brain and your spinal cord and if the infection is not resolved it can lead to spinal meningitis. Therefore they go in and physically widen the sinus passages, allowing them to drain properly. You can look it up, not fun to read about.

So the surgery to remove the adenoid (possibly her tonsils) and for the ear tube placement is currently scheduled for April 8th. If there is a cancellation our date will be moved up. We have a 90% chance of this curing all of Tae's current health problems. Please keep us in your thoughts.