Yonah 2.0

Many of you who are regular readers are familiar with the story of our four-and-half-year-old (tfu tfu tfu) son Yonah.   He has had to deal with some sensory 'issues' and has been undergoing intensive work with a range of therapists to overcome a range of resulting behavioral and learning problems. 

You may remember that last year he underwent a sleep study that revealed that he was experiencing serious episodes of apnea, a fancy term which basically means he was waking up a lot... more than 30 times per night, as it turns out. 

You may also recall that the doctors felt strongly that the likely culprit for the apnea was the fact that his adenoids and tonsils were overly large.

In due course Yonah was scheduled for surgery to remove the tonsils and adenoids, and then we watched helplessly as he went through an unusually long and painful (but full, thank G-d) recovery.

OK, now that everyone is on the same page... here is the long-overdue update on Yonah.

First it should be mentioned that immediately after the surgery, we began pumping the surgeon for information on what he'd found.  Like most parents, we did not take lightly the decision to put our child under the knife, and were especially anxious to hear that we'd done the right thing and that the surgery was indeed necessary.

The surgeon told us that Yonah's tonsils were large, but that his adenoids were unusually large.  Then he stopped himself and said "Did I say unusually large?  Let me correct that.  They were huge... enormous... gigantic!" 

In a follow-up visit, we asked the doctor about the fact that we'd noticed almost immediately that Yonah's speech was much clearer and that he was much more responsive to people and things in his environment.  "Was there any chance", we asked him, "that his hearing had been affected by the over-sized adenoids?"

The doctor thought about it and said, "You know... with adenoids as large as he had, I think there is almost no chance that they weren't interfering with his hearing!"

Like magic we watched as, day by day, Yonah became more interactive and conversational.  He went from frustrated grunts and monosyllabic responses to direct questions, to being an inquisitive chatterbox... asking us about things he'd overheard and even about idioms we used that he didn't understand.

The highlight (for me, anyway) came one Friday morning when I was out running errands in Jerusalem.  I'd taken Yonah along so that he wouldn't be underfoot at home while the big kids were doing their chores.   Yonah had been so well behaved that I decided to treat him to lunch at his favorite falafel joint ('Falafel Daron', located at the corner of Emek Rafa'im & Rachel Imenu, if you must know).  We'd gotten our food and were sitting at a table near the door with Yonah's back towards the street. 

Shortly after we'd tucked into our meals Yonah looked up suddenly and said, "Abba, I hear our car!"   I looked over his head and, sure enough, idling right outside the door was the exact make and model of car that we own.   His hearing had become so sharp that he'd cataloged the sound of our car and recognized the sound when he heard it nearby!

All of the people at his Gan have commented on what a different kid he has become.  He is cheerful and engaging... laughing all the time.  He is much more curious about people and things around him... and is making huge strides in almost every area.  It's all pretty miraculous.

One of the professionals who has been working with us throughout Yonah's odyssey put it best: 

"Well of course there's a dramatic improvement across the board.  The kid hadn't had a decent night's sleep in his entire life!  Nobody can function properly under those circumstances!" 

Add to that the fact that he couldn't hear what was going on around him up until the surgery, and well... this is like getting a great big do-over.  We feel like we've been granted a free upgrade to Yonah 2.0!