Tongue-Tied

Today marked the end of a 3 year struggle, and am I glad it is over! When Bryant was born we noticed he made a funny noise when he nursed. He had no problem feeding, he just made a funny clicking noise. After a little investigation of our own (because the doctor and nurses were no help), we realized the little frenulum (piece of tissue) on the bottom of his tongue extended to the tip of his tongue instead of stopping about mid-tongue like in most people. Our doctor at the time just said to watch it and if he had problems feeding we could have it cut. Well, fast forward 3 years and we all know B has no problems eating. We continued to struggle with whether or not to do something about it because eating was great and he didn't seem to have a problem with speech (the other thing they said to watch for). So, about a month ago he had his 3 year check up with a new pediatrician. His opinion, get it cut. Now, my struggle was this: he has no problems eating or talking (that we could tell at 3), but... what if he does have problems with it later in life, or he just becomes aware he can't stick his tongue out and it becomes a point of teasing, etc. I know, judge me if you want to, but I do understand how cruel kids can be. There will be things he has to accept about himself and have strength to overcome, but was this one of them? Well, here's where God's hand came in...

We made the appointment for a consult and a funny thing happened. Cal took him and accidentally went to the wrong oral surgeon. Now, 2 parts of this are "funny". The first is that Cal took him. No offense, but Cal never takes the kids to the doctor because I'm usually the one off and, well, I'm the Mom. The second is that he went to the wrong doctor. Long story short, they were across the street from one another. When they went into the "wrong" office, who happened to be closed for office work that day, they were nice enough to unlock the doors and see him since their computers were down and they couldn't figure out what the mix-up was - what dr. does that? The doctor was super-nice, Bryant and Cal liked him a lot, he recommended getting it cut, and he made it sound like it wasn't a big deal. They then left that office, went across the street to the "right" doctor and waited 3 hours to be seen, the doctor was grumpy, he didn't recommend cutting it, said it would have to be done at the hospital, and he made it sound like he hadn't done the procedure before in a child. Now the blessing in all of this is that Cal was the one to experience all of this and although "wrong" doctor was out-of-network he said for sure we would use him and get this done. Decision made, my internal struggle continues...

This morning we went into "wrong" doctor and within 10 minutes the procedure was done, in his office, and we left an hour after we got there with a sleepy boy and a new tongue. He has never complained that his tongue hurts him, is eating like normal, and he is very excited he can stick his tongue out like Cameron. I really feel affirmed in our decision. I don't know if he would have had problems later on or if kids would have teased him about it, but God knows, and He led us and blessed us in our decision. I'm reminded of Phil 4: 6&7, my daily prayer, why can't I just learn this already :)

Showing off his new trick