I Wanna Be Sedated

After seeing our ENT doctor last week and hearing that Harrison's poor little tongue is tied pretty severely, we're having Harrison's frenulum clipped tomorrow. Even though he's the one undergoing the procedure, I am the one who's gonna need some sedation. (What would I do if something was REALLY wrong with one of my kids? I can't even think about this without the waterworks starting up. Geez, buck up, sister.)

Anyhoo, as I said we took Harrison to the pediatric ENT clinic a week or so back and the doctor barely had to look at Harry's tongue to tell us that we should certainly have this procedure done now or Harrison would more than likely end up needing, at the very least, some speech therapy when he turns 4 or 5. And, he could possibly have some issues when he starts eating solids in a couple of months, too. The doctor was surprised (and a little dismayed) that we weren't offered the option to have his frenulum clipped while he was in the hospital in the days after he was born because the procedure is SUPER easy at that point in an infant's life. He also told us that if we had clipped right way, Harry would have been able to nurse. Ugh!! (I've decided not to get too pissed about this, though. Harrison had so many other issues right after birth that we probably would have opted to wait, anyway.)

Well, because we didn't have the procedure done right after Harrison was born, the poor dude has to go to a special surgery center and he has to be sedated for the duration of the surgery so the doctor can make sure he makes the cut as clean as possible. This means that after 1:00am, Harrison can't have any formula. His surgery isn't scheduled to start until 8:00am. I don't see this ending well for any of us.

Actually, it sounds like the procedure is pretty simple--the actual clipping of the frenulum takes less than two minutes and since the incision is immediately cauterized by the electric knife used to make the cut, there is virtually no bleeding. The time-consuming part of the surgery comes from the sedation--they will mask Harrison down first and then they will place an IV to keep him asleep. Then they have to wake him up again. Seems like a lot of work for two stinking minutes.

The doctor seems pretty convinced that this needs to be done like right now, but I have made the mistake of reading literature online that says that clipping the frenulum really ISN'T necessary, so there is a little voice in my head whispering, "You're gonna be sorry about this tomorrow!!"

I'm just hoping that we're not creating a problem where one doesn't exist. If Harrison's cries of hunger don't keep me up tonight, wondering whether or not we're doing the right thing certainly will.