See ya in hell, tonsils

A few months back, during our visit to the family doctor, we decided that given Logan's age and consistent struggle with the s and z sounds, it was probably time to see a speech therapist. The speech therapist said that for those specific sounds Logan was jamming all the air through his nose, but for the rest of his speech, not enough air was getting through. She recommended we take him to see an ENT. Good thing we already had an appointment made, because the doctor who recommended the speech therapist had gasped something that sounded strangely similar to "For crying out loud!" and, "Look at the size of those bastards!" when Logan said "aaah" and showed him his tonsils. He'd also suggested the ENT.

Enter Dr. Peterson, the guy who put tubes in Logan's ears last March. Even way back then, he was impressed at the sheer girth of the tonsils in Logan but figured he was going to be going through enough with the tubes in his ears and the biopsy on the lump in his neck and decided we'd come back another time for the rest. Last month after checking Logan out and talking to me about Logan's sleeping habits (snoring like a chainsaw, tossing and turning all night, beast to wake up in the morning), he figured the tonsils and adenoids were prime for removal. They were obviously causing speech problems and it was very likely they were causing sleep apnea as well, forcing Logan to wake himself up and roll over so he could breathe.

So the -ectomies were scheduled. Chris stayed home to keep Declan fat and happy while Logan and I met Ed and Amy at the surgical center. Logan was clearly nervous, and I had him call Grandpa on the drive. They chit chatted about the things those two mischievous boys chit chat about and Logan's mind was beautifully distracted. Once there, the nurse got Logan changed into his hospital gown and explained everything he could expect. We all watched Monsters, Inc. while we waited for his turn and he seemed to relax a little - until the anesthesiologist came to take him one direction while Mom, Dad and Amy went another. He started crying and Ed did his best to reassure him things would be fine but there wasn't much we could do other than let him go.

While we waited, Ed, Amy and I learned about making pilgrims out of urine hats (seriously) and talked about Amy's childhood experiment with biking + roller skating. It was only about a half hour before the doctor came to tell us the tonsils were out, and Logan was fine and starting to wake up. He said he was amazed at the size of the tonsils and adenoids - they were in the top 5 largest he'd ever seen and they were bringing in doctors and nurses from around the area to gawk and awe at them. Ed said he felt like he won some sort of contest.

Logan had a rough time coming out of the anesthesia. He fell asleep mid-cry a few times, which completely broke my heart. The three of us parents did our best to comfort him and encourage him to drink juice or eat an ice pop so we could go home. Logan was desperate to get the IV out (they put it in his foot so he wouldn't be pawing at it) and that turned out to be his popsicle-eating motivation. Once the popsicle and medicine were down, the IV was removed and we were cleared to go.

I expected him to sleep all day and put up a fight about eating anything, given his reluctance at the hospital. But once we got here, he went to town eating several popsicles, a bowl of ice cream, a bowl of jello, some grapple juice, and even mashed potatoes for dinner. He asked Chris to order him a pizza (denied!) and kept wanting to get up and play.

Now that it's over, Logan sounds younger and doesn't have the hot potato quality to his voice anymore. Once he heals up, we'll get him into speech therapy regularly to help him learn to make the s's and z's properly. But for the moment, he's doing great. Another childhood milestone completed.