Camryn – Grateful Patient of Dr. Julie Wei

Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy
Camryn's story: Told by her mother Connie

Pre-Surgery

Our concern started around 18 months with Camryn's breathing - a "noisy" breather, she always sounded congested. She had ear infections, every year for the first 3 years of her life. She would get a high fever once or twice a year and our pediatrician would say she likely had a virus. Camryn was never diagnosed with tonsillitis. Camryn had one round of strep throat at about 2 years of age.

Since her 12 month check-up on every occasion to visit the pediatrician, we commented on her breathing and snoring during sleep. We had an ENT consultation at about age 2, after her 2-year checkup when we expressed concern about her breathing and snoring. At that time the ENT specialist that saw Camryn advised us to wait and see if she might grow into her tonsils/adenoids. During the ENT assessment, he rated the size of her tonsils and adenoids at a 3+.

Camryn has never been a morning person, very hard to wake, not happy when she wakes, lots of yawning and ready for naptime every day. Her teachers at school would comment on what a good napper Camryn is! She would fall asleep very quickly and would be the last one up after some coaxing to wake. 

Living with Camryn we couldn't settle for the advice of "growing into her tonsils". The biggest impact was her sleep every night, which was very restless - mouth breathing, stopping breathing for 12-15 seconds, then gasping for air and tossing from side to side. And she snored like a freight train! Somewhat comical at pre-school and they mentioned to us how it didn't seem possible that such loud snoring could come out of such a little girl!

Choking was something we had to watch closely with Camryn. We always had to coach her to chew, chew, chew, because she would choke when eating. This was a daily issue that we were always very aware of... at every meal. It was of course a concern and we attributed her tonsils as part of the problem.

Camryn is considered petite or small. She was at the 3rd percentile for weight every year until this year at her 4-year checkup where she moved up to about 25th percentile. She's been smaller than her twin sister by about 4 lbs since they were 2. At their 4-year checkup, Camryn still weighed 29 lbs, the same as her 3-year check-up and Mikayla weighed 36 lbs, so we were starting to see Mikayla's weight increasing more than Camryn's.

We had dental issues for Camryn - by 18 months we noticed her cross bite (upper front teeth sitting behind her lower front teeth). At about 3 ½, our dentist recommended and installed a quad helix upper pallet extender on her upper teeth. We wanted to address any dental issues as early as possible to minimize big dental issues later. What we didn't realize at the time, a significant contributing factor for her cross bite was the mouth breathing. She didn't have her tongue helping extend her upper pallet because she always had her mouth open to breath. The quad helix helped do what nature wasn't able to do expand her upper pallet and push her front teeth out/over the bottom front teeth. The quad helix was removed in August 2008, just before her tonsillectomy surgery. Her front teeth are now more spread out and she's better prepared for when she starts losing her baby teeth. 

Post surgery 

Camryn's tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy surgery was on September 9, 2008 at Children's Mercy Hospital. Immediately, during our short-stay recovery after the surgery we were amazed how Camryn was breathing - steady, quiet breathing that we'd never seen before. She was breathing through her nose, mouth closed. We were already thrilled with the results within the first hour!

Since her surgery, within the first several weeks we saw dramatic improvements ...Camryn was changing before our eyes.

She wakes on her own in the mornings after getting a restful sleep, which never happened before the surgery. She isn't suffering from the acute sleep apnea (not breathing, gasping for air, breathing heavy and snoring). This is the biggest success for us out of her surgery. Now when she wakes up in the morning she's talkative and happy, she's energetic and ready for her day. We know this change will have such a positive impact on her ability to learn and socialize. We are truly amazed and thankful for this!

Camryn is eating well and her appetite is great. She put on about 3 lbs in 4 weeks right after her surgery. We've had no issues with choking since the procedure and we anticipate we won't have this problem any longer. This is a huge relief for us.

We are excited to watch her progress regarding her teeth. We believe that nature will now be able to work its magic and keep her teeth and jaw line in check, eliminating the need for more appliances to extend her pallet and help her have a beautiful smile! 

We are so happy our pediatrician, Dr. Delsie Filardi, referred us to Dr. Julie Wei. Dr. Wei assessed Camryn and gave us a recommendation that has resulted in the best possible outcome we could have imagined. We are thankful for the outstanding care we received from Dr. Wei, and her team. This surgery has lifted a burden from our family and will give Camryn her best opportunity to be a healthy, happy and successful person.