Sleep Study

John-Douglas has been working hard, and we are seeing some improvement. Since his continuous aspiration issues, we have finally moved up to a pretty normal menu for him. He is able to have softer foods and regular liquids again. So far we are seeing minimal issues. Only once did we notice a problem where his spaghetti went up his nose, and this pointed us in a new direction of where his feeding issues are. We now think it may have been a soft palette issue all along, pushing food up into his nasal cavity and then allowing it to drip down into his lungs; thus leading to his aspiration pneumonias and not epiglottis issues.

In our pj's and ready for a relaxing night with our 

sleep study!

Another phase in JD's continuous work to get better, was to see an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) Doctor. The ENT sent him for a sleep study, and we will be doing a hearing evaluation soon as well. We went to the ENT per a recommendation from his neurologist and his speech therapist. He has shown issues with breathing through his nose and smelling. His ears stem from him complaining that he has hearing issues where it is really quiet one second and super loud the next.

Since JD got sick, he has shown different sleep patterns than he had prior. He snores a lot, and at times he is continuously catching his breath. He also seems to sleep lightly. So it was determined it was best to do a sleep study to make sure he is safe in his sleep.

Relaxing on his big bed

So last Friday, the 29th of May, he had his sleep study. I talked to him about some aspects of it before. He seemed ok, but obviously anxious. The place we went to was very impressive. They worked really well with JD. His Tech B, was great with him and calmed many of his nerves. When we first got there, she gave us a tour of the place. Showed JD to his room and gave him a chance to adjust to what was going on there. She showed him some of the equipment and explained what we would be doing. After that, she gave us a break and down time. JD got into his pajamas and relaxed a bit on his bed for about a half hour.

JD, the robot

After some down time, we went and got all the wires attached and got fitted and tucked in for the night. It took some more reading and reassuring to help him relax after that. I was requested to lay with him, which was one I was more than willing to do for him. Once asleep, I went and laid separately, as I didn't want to mess up any results. His tech came in a  few times throughout the night to adjust him, check wires when he would do gasping episodes, etc.

How do you sleep like this? All tucked in!

But now is the fun part... we wait. We won't be getting any results for a month, and I'm seriously wishing to have some that night.