The Adenoids

The adenoids. Two mischievous little glands whose existence, only a few short months ago, I was blissfully unaware of. They live somewhere in the back of your throat (or is it the ear canal?) and, from what I understand, their function is to fight off bacteria and other unwanted intruders. However, they can also get infected and enlarged, and in fact frequently do in young children, causing myriad problems and wreaking general havoc on the upper respiratory system.

After a seeming endless parade of colds and runny noses, interspersed by short periods of calm, catch-your-breath healthiness, Mylo's doctor diagnosed him with enlarged adenoids. If that led to a quick cure then that would be the end of this blog post. Alas, it was not. Possible solutions included a round of antibiotics, surgically removing the adenoids altogether, and nasal sprays. After carefully weighing our options, we decided to go with the nasal sprays. We picked up some Little Noses saline nasal mist at the pharmacy (to flush out the nostrils) and then bought a $75 dollar steroid spray intended to be used after the mist in order to shrink the adenoids. Ahhh, how naive we were back then...

To those who have never tried to insert something into the nose of a 21 month old boy, may you never have the misfortune of being weighted with such a task. If you happen to have seen any of the battle scenes from Braveheart you might have a sense of what's in store. Or if you've ever wrestled an octopus. Or rather, a team of octopi. Underwater. In the dark. With your hands-- well you get the picture: it is an epic struggle, complete with tears, screaming, flailing arms and legs, and throughout you are filled with terrible guilt that, even though you are the one losing the struggle, you are the one responsible for this ordeal existing at all.

The good news is that, aside from some minor congestion, Mylo's been feeling fine as of late (he did come down with a mild case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease which he then passed on to me for one excruciatingly unpleasant week, but it was not related in any way to his adenoids and so I'll save that drama for a different posting). And in the absence of any colds Reedu and I have been hesitant to start up the nasal spray battles again. Although, admittedly, we've become somewhat neurotic about checking his forehead for fevers, and every cough, sneeze, and sniffle gives us a moment of anxious pause as we wonder if this is the beginning of something new. But, truth be told, this has been a fairly calm, healthy period. May it please, please stay that way for a while longer.  

The offending parties