Since my last tongue-tie post when our son was diagnosed with tongue-tie I have learned a few things... that a lot of people go through this with their babies and many of them have a hard time getting anyone to listen to their concerns about their child's tongue-tie. In fact, there are people out there who do not even acknowledge that tongue-tie exists (which I think is really weird). So, if you suspect that your child has tongue-tie and you are having difficulty breastfeeding, you are not alone. There are many resources out there so start searching and be persistent, this doesn't have to ruin your ability to breastfeed successfully. I would start with tonguetie.net and search for pages on facebook, there are a lot of people who are going through this. As I am about to share, the process of getting tongue-tie fixed is itself very quick and pretty easy (unless you are me and simply freak out at the idea of a doctor doing ANYTHING and compensate by terrorizing said doctor with lists of questions-but whatever I am thorough).
When we met with the ENT doctor we were filled with anticipation because we didn't know what to expect or what it would be like. We mostly expected that the snip would occur that day right there in the office. Ricky came with me to the appointment because he did not want to miss being there in case they were going to snip JR's tongue-tie that day. The doctor came in and explained to us what tongue-tie was and how often he saw patients with this exact same problem. He reassured us that this diagnosis was something he saw all the time and literally had performed hundreds of frenuloplastys (clipping the frenulum to release the tongue). Once he checked JR he confirmed that there was a short frenulum and he thought that snipping it, especially at this age, would be beneficial. He explained that he is not set up to do it in the office and so down the hall there is a surgical center he uses for same-day patients. The idea of bringing JR into an OR setting terrified me but the doctor reiterated that it would still be no big deal. They gave us some paperwork to read over and set up the appointment for one week later.
I read the paperwork on the way home and by the time we got home I had a page of questions for the surgeon. This is because they give the same paperwork to everyone and assume that the patient will be getting a local anesthetic. So I called and left a message and the following day the surgeon did call me back and answer all my questions. I wanted to make sure that there would be no needles (like an IV used), no blood taken, I wanted to know is he would be strapped down or swaddled, how long he would be away from us-- I am thorough-and a western doctor's thorn. I hate blanket protocol and it is the basis of western medicine. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a reason for it and I don't HATE western medicine but I attended graduate school for Traditional Chinese Medicine and I believe that people should be more than a chart and so I am going to ask all the questions I need to until I am comfortable. Lets just say that I am sure the doctor was glad to be free of us at the end of the week. I only contacted him twice and the second time was because they wanted me to restrict any food from my 11 week old baby for four hours. I get it-protocol- but he wasn't getting anesthesia. I really didn't want to piss everyone off so I yielded and held JR off for 3 hours and lied and said four.
On the day of the 'surgery,' Ricky and I were both a mess. He thought I couldn't tell but I know my husband and he was freaking out. He could've easily stayed home and my mom would have taken us but there was no way Daddy was letting his little boy go to that surgery center without him. Luckily JR was the first patient of the day because I don't think we could've handled the anticipation of a later appointment. We were up by 5am, it was pouring rain and black outside. Aside from the annoyance of having to drive in the storm, I was comforted by the steady rain and rolling thunder. I could relate every long minute of this morning but the reality is that it was over so quickly that I would be building you up for nothing. It was our fears of having to take our baby to an operating room that made this day intense and not the procedure itself.
As with any nerve-wracking experience there was a crazy person to distract us from our self-inflicted melodrama. There was a mom in the waiting room who was way too hopped up at 6am and kept getting oober close to us while telling us how her daughter is always sick and then proceeding to repeatedly ask her daughter if she wanted to "touch the baby." These are the times I am so grateful that wearing the Ergo allows me to politely refuse to allow others to touch our baby. We thought once we went into the surgical area we would be free but this lady even found us in our little private spot during the few minutes JR was away from us and started telling us some crazy horror story until a nurse shooed her away.
We walked into a hospital-like setting where we were greeted by a surgical staff who asked a lot of questions and filled out A LOT of paperwork. Everyone was very friendly, even the anesthesiologist, whose presence within itself made me nervous. When the nurse came to take JR, I could feel both Ricky and I tense up but we held it together and just stood there watching him being carried down the hall. I wanted to cry. But I refrained and they took us around the corner to wait. It was maybe 5 minutes, maybe. They brought him out and he wasn't crying or anything. The look on his face I could tell he had been crying but he was over it and ready for his booby. He stared up at me as he nursed and didn't look away until he was sure I wasn't going anywhere and after the most intense stare-down I have ever received, he closed his eyes. The surgeon came out and spoke to us but all I heard was that everything went well. The rest just escaped me. It was so small a time and really the whole drama of it was that we had to have this whole production at a surgical center in an operating room.
It has been almost two months since JR's tongue-tie was clipped. I was expecting some big change but there was no "ah-ha" moment. It was gradual and took awhile for me to notice a change. He does feed better and he definitely has so much more mobility with his tongue. This is normal, especially since he had a very strong latch before the clipping anyway. In the end I am glad we took care of it at an age where he did not have to go under anesthesia and it was over in minutes.
