Sleep Study

Last year when Noah was in hospital with pneumonia he seemed to have gotten better during the day, but then at night his sats would drop again and his oxygen would need to be turned up. We couldn't work out what was going on but every day his sats would be pretty good and then at night they weren't so good.

After seeing a respiratory Dr he suggested that we needed to do a sleep study to see if his sats were dropping at night on a regular basis. If they were then we would have to consider either night time oxygen or CPAP or Bipap.

On Sunday night after 7 months of waiting (and cancellations at the last minute!) Noah finally had his sleep study done. Noah was hooked up with lots of leads to a laptop which took readings throughout the night of his oxygen saturation level, whether he was snoring, and the movements of his chest and stomach as he breathed.

The thing I didn't realise was that the nurse actually stayed in the room the WHOLE night with us! I never usually get much sleep when I'm in hospital with Noah, but when someone else is in the room the whole night it's REALLY hard to sleep! We knew the nurse from years ago when Noah used to make lots of frequent hospital trips so it was good to catch up and chat, but I found myself waking up at 12.30 am, 2am, 4 am and 5 am and finding it very hard to go back to sleep, especially as we would start talking again and she would tell me what his readings were.

When he was awake his sats were sitting at 98% which is good for Noah. When he first went off to sleep they slipped down to 94% and then when he was in a deep sleep they sat on 89%. She said at 89% they usually consider prescribing oxygen or Cpap but we have to talk it over now with Noah's paediatrician to see what he wants to do. She was saying that there are a few side effects from having it on at night including skin breakdown from the mask, nose bleeds and just having a constant noise in the room and even though Noah's sats were low he wasn't struggling at all with it, so we really need to consider our options.

The positive side to having it at night is that it could help Noah's quality of sleep at night, and therefore he could be more awake and alert during the day. It could also help his lung function and hopefully decrease chest infections.

I guess we have another decision to make within the next month or two after talking with his Dr.

It was actually nice being in hospital with Noah when he wasn't actually sick (despite the lack of sleep!). In the morning we had lots of nurses start their shift that we had a lot to do with years ago, so they all came into the room to say hi and have a chat. They were all saying how much Noah had grown and one of the male nurses kept saying over and over again 'isn't he beautiful!!'. It's nice to know how much they care and makes a trip to hospital that much better.