Frenotomy!

What's that, you ask? Well, thanks to Brooke, now we know. Uncle Dave and Aunt Carol had both declared her "tongue-tied" when she had her first dental exam. Tongue-tied is when that little membrane under your tongue grows too thick or too long (or both) and "ties" your tongue down to the bottom of our mouth. It can interfere with eating and speech. In Brooke's case, she could eat just fine, but it wasn't helping her speech development. Her tonue needed to be released. Uncle Dave said he would fix it, but we decided that since she loves him SO much, she didn't need to associate him with what could be a scary and painful procedure. Our pediatrician gave us a referral to an ENT, and off we went. The doctor took a look, agreed with her aunt and uncle and made a surgery date. He told us the surgery would take about 15 seconds. Yup - seconds. They call it surgery because they have to put the patient to sleep in order to do the procedure. I know I wouldn't let anyone come near my tongue with a pair of sissors! We had to arrive at the surgery center almost 2 hours before her operation, so here we are at 6:15am for an 8am surgery. Yeech!! At least there wasn't any traffic! Brooke wasn't really sure what was going to happen, just that she was going to get her tongue "fixed" by the doctor (whom she liked alot). She was in good spirits. Daddy stayed at home so he could take Olivia to school.

We had to check-in and do a mound of paperwork. Brooke got an ID band and so did her baby!! She loved that. The clerk at the front desk was great!

We settled in to wait. I figured we'd be in the waiting room for quite a while, but they called us really soon. No time to color!

We were put into a cubicle and several nurses, her doctor and the anesthesiologist came by to visit. They were all great with her. She loved her hospital gown and especially her red (huge) socks.

By the time all the visitors were gone, she had no less than THREE wrist bands. One was her ID, one was an allergy bracelet and the third was a bracelet I had to write. They make you write what procedure you are getting in your own (unmedical) words. That way, everyone is on the same page and less mistakes are made. (He! He! If it had been me on the table, I could have written "face-lift" and maybe gotten one for free!) The strip on her chest is a thermometer.

And then it was time to go! The nurse brought a wagon for Brooke to ride in. She thought that was fun! She didn't seem worried or nervous and I told her I'd see her in just a few minutes. We'd already gone over how there was going to be a special mask she would get to wear and that it had magic sleeping dust in it. The doctor had explained that she'd only be out for about 1 minute, just long enough for him to make the cut and a suture, if neccessary. She rolled into the operating room at 7:55am.

This picture was taken at 8:30am and we're on our way home! Everything was done in just a few minutes and she was already up and watching TV when I got back to her cubicle. She got a smushed popsicle to eat for the ride home and she was ready to go (though she was walking like a tiny drunk)! The doctor was really pleased with how it went and he only put in one stitch. He said we didn't even need to come back for the after-surgery check-up appointment. She was back up to "full speed" by the time we got home. She still says that her tongue is sore from time to time, now, but that's because she learned fast that she would get a popsicle or grape flavored ibuprophen. Ha! It was a good experience and I was very impressed with the folks at the surgery center.