Sleep Apnea and Night Terrors?

Because we needed more to worry about...

On Saturday night, I paged the pulmonologist because Bryn was breathing really badly when he went to bed. It was odd, because he was so happy and totally fine before then. ( Okay, he coughed a few times and was a bit congested, but that's it.)

When I gave him his Flovent before bed, I thought I heard something funny, so I asked him to take a deep breath for me. When he did, I was surprised to hear an audible whistle. My husband is *sure* this was due to nasal congestion, but I'm almost positive he was breathing through his mouth.

Anyway, I gave him some albuterol.

When he fell asleep, he breathing was very noisy and he was retracting like mad. I gave him another shot of albuterol less than an hour after the first, which our doc has told me to do if he's unresponsive.

It didn't help, so I paged.

I got the oldest doc in the practice, who asked a battery of questions. He then told me that what I was seeing may be a result of continued swelling from the adenoid removal, but that he was probably suffering from sleep apnea, and that I should consider a sleep study.

(We did a sleep study last year. It sucked harder than anything I've known as a parent.)

But he may have hit on something. The night after the surgery, Bryn had a night terror. He used to get those a lot, but this was the first in well over a year. It was also the most intense, lasting at least 10 minutes.

Funnily, my mother-in-law was convinced it happened because we'd let him watch Shark Tale, which she instead was too scary and too intense for him. And while I'm not a huge fan of the film and won't let him watch it again anytime soon, I know that night terrors aren't caused by external stimuli.

I figured it was from the anesthesia, possible combined with albuterol. But I guess I was wrong too.

Either way, looks like we may have something new and exciting on our hands. Better hit the books (and the Web) again.