Back at the Hospital with Matthew

Today Matthew (20 years old, bio son, DS and autism) had surgery, and we are back in the hospital at least overnight, probably for another couple of days. Matt has severe sleep apnea, which is much more common in children with Down syndrome. We have been working on this for years.

He had C-Pap at home, and tolerated it well for a while, then got a rash from the mask, and ever since then has not tolerated it at all.

Almost 2 years ago he had a "midline posterior glossectomy'...basically they cut a fairly substantial chunk out of the middle, back part of his tongue. After that healed (had to be rehospitalized twice for dehydration, it took much longer for this to heal than they were expecting) his sleep study showed that before the surgery he had severe sleep apnea. After the surgery, although the number, duration and severity of the apnic episodes had been cut in half, he STILL has severe sleep apnea. We have been trying, without success, to get him to wear his Bi-Pap.

This surgery is the next step. It is genioglossal advancement and repose procedure. They bring his tongue forward and tie it forward.

He came through the surgery well, the doc saying that his tongue is HUGE. She said this tends to be the more difficult of the two surgeries, and probably will require 2-3 days to stay. He is somewhat uncomfortable right now as we are waiting for the nurse to come in with more pain meds.

Please say a prayer for Matt's speedy, complete recovery, and that his surgery will reduce his sleep apnea to a point that it is no longer dangerous to him.

Mary