Burning the Rubber

Well, it looks like we will be burning the rubber again between home and PCMC. Jim just left for the hospital with Ammon. They had a scheduled sleep study tonight but I told them he couldn't bring Ammon home tomorrow unless they do something to fix the mess he's in. As soon as we drop off the steroids, the same problem comes again. About 3 a.m. this morning I woke to insistent alarms. I rushed into his bedroom and realized that he wasn't breathing -- you know, the apnea kind that happens when you stop before you take another big breath. I roused him and rolled him over on the opposite side and he gasped and started breathing again. I asked him if he was ok and he gave me a thumbs up sign. So I went back to bed and we all went back to sleep. We have had several very good nights with the alarms only going off a few times. Last night was different. This morning when he woke up, he was panicking (sp?) because he couldn't breathe well enough. I quickly fixed his dose of steroids and got those going. The morning was awful but as the day wore on, he settled down and sounded a little better. Tomorrow he is scheduled to go on an even lower dose of steroids. We know that won't work.
So.....Jim called Dr. Valdez at home this morning and we talked to him. He thought that Jim would be able to have the sleep study people get a doctor to admit Ammon tomorrow morning. I don't know if he can get that pulled off but I told Jim he absolutely could not bring Ammon home until the ENTs do something to give Ammon some relief.
We have three options: a procedure that will stretch the opening that is being blocked and we opt for that one first; laser surgery to remove the granulation but that is scar tissue on top of scar tissue and there is no guarantee that this procedure will work any better than what's already going on; last and least favorable option is to get a tracheotomy. Those are nasty things but that may be where we end up. It isn't a permanent thing so there is hope that things could settle down and all could be normal once more.
Ammon was absolutely adamant that he have no more surgeries until this morning when he couldn't breathe. He said, "I don't want surgery, but it if it will help me feel better, then we had better get it done."
Just before he left, we had a neighbor come over and assist Jim in giving Ammon a blessing. Ammon said, "I will not go up there until I get a blessing and that's final!" So he asked simply that he wouldn't be afraid. That's all he wanted to hear in the blessing - one of comfort. That's what he got.
He hates the sleep studies. He said, "I was so embarrased the last time I had one and they put the net on my head!" He hates having the probes taken off, too, because it pulls his hair. I cut his hair quite short today so it wouldn't be so hard to get the probes off.
We'll update as we know more and see how things go.