CT Scan and Results

Due to Jackson's chronic sinus and upper respiratory infections, and wheezy cough, his pediatrician recently recommended that we seek out treatment with the pediatric ENT specialist in New Orleans again.  After our lovely visit with him in August, I was anxious to hear what he had to say, and I blogged about Jackson needing a CT scan done here.

Checking out the fish while we waited

Fast-forward a few weeks: Jackson had the CT Scan of his sinuses on Tuesday.  We left our house at 6:30AM and arrived at Oschner at 9AM for his prep.  They called us back to the holding area where Jackson was a total ham for a good 30 minutes.  He had the nurses bringing him balloons and toys and then helping him decorate his balloon with stickers.  They even took him around the halls to wish the other patients well before their procedures - and this was all done before he was given "happy juice".

The "happy juice" had the same effect on him as when he got his tubes and adenoidectomy...tired, drunk ol' man.  My nerves always get the best of me when I see the medication start to take it's effect.  I can't help but to worry, but try to always put on a brave face.

They wheeled Jackson away from us at 10:54AM and it was an hour before we were called back to recovery.  After about 30 minutes, I really started to get anxious and worry about the what-ifs.  Luckily, the procedure just took a little longer than expected because the anesthesiologist had a hard time getting Jackson's iv's started.  Poor guy has some beat up little hands! 

Jackson was a pretty typical toddler coming out of anesthesia, crying and super irritated with everything.  Especially the fact that his balloons were gone from his room.  But, after a couple popsicles, he was finally ready to take home.

I thought he'd sleep the whole way home, but that certainly wasn't the case.  He ate almost all of the banana bread muffins we had made together the night before and asked a bazillion times for his balloon, with the Santa stickers on it.  Pitiful.

Such a good lil baker:)

By the time we all got home, it was bath, breathing treatment and bed.  We all slept in our bed, and were out by 8:30...just what I needed!

The doctor called us with the results from the scan last night.  They came back abnormal and showed that Jackson has significant sinusitis aka blockage in his sinus cavities, specifically in his maxillary sinuses under his eyes.  Hence, the reason why he constantly has puffy, dark circles under his eyes.

Considering Jackson's age, he just kept saying it was significant.  He even offered to do surgery to basically drain and irrigate his sinuses.  The downfall to this, is that children under the age of 4 heal so rapidly that the irrigation would close up within weeks.  We discussed this surgery with him in August and he was very against it then, and still doesn't think it's the best option, just offered it to us...

His next step for us is a sweat-chloride test to test him for CF, cystic fibrosis.  While Jackson is a thriving little boy, he does have a good bit of the symptoms and this test has been brought up in numerous doctor's appointments.  So, we have an appointment for the lab test at 1PM tomorrow.

Other possibilities or reasons for the abnormal scan is that Jackson may have a syndrome called Immotile Cilia Syndrome.  This basically means that his cilia's aren't able to move mucus through his sinuses.  We'll have to go back to his immunologist for this test.

The doctor spent a good 20 minutes on the phone with me, which was amazing.  He gave me a lot of medical information on diagnosis possiblities as well as medications to try.  The good news is that Jackson is thriving and developing right on track.  He will eventually get better with age, or grow out of this.  This phase too shall pass:)

He advised us to not proceed with allergy testing because clearly Jackson is allergic so there is really no need.  His orders are to keep a dust free house, no feathers, no pets, no carpet, and no cats.  All of those seem pretty easy to do, and maybe I can convince Mr. that we need our cleaning lady to come once a week now!

UPDATE: Thank you God, the sweat test was negative!!!