b e n j a m i n f a l k e n b e r g

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I really meant to provide this tongue surgery update a LOT sooner. Sorry.

Turns out the crankiness and weirdness and drooling and reluctance to stick out his tongue right after his surgery was…teething. TEETHING!

How did we not think of that!?

Everything was back to normal, tongue-wise, pretty quickly after a couple days…and his tongue looks great now!

It felt like the early days with Benjamin, all over again…not understanding the problem, not seeing the real reason, and freaking out about it a little. Embarrassing! We’ve laughed a lot about it since…

To be fair, it had been a while since he had last teethed, so we were caught a little off-guard. It’s still pretty funny though, now, looking back.

There are a few more general Benjamin updates; I’ve just not been able to keep up… I’m putting a list together and will hopefully be posting it ’soon’.

Benjamin’s still not quite up to speed with his tongue. :(

He had cold symptoms the day after his surgery, and he continues to have a runny nose and while he’s been generally eating normally and well, the last day or so he’s had a bit of appetite loss.

Most disturbing to me so far, though: he has not yet let us look under his tongue. He acts like it’s still sore. He’s still drooling a lot, too, though it’s not as heavy as it was.

Prior to the surgery, he would happily and playfully stick out his tongue, well, on command–or anytime the word ‘tongue’ was uttered, anytime he saw a picture of a tongue, etc. You can see it moving in his mouth, but he just won’t stick it out for us…

Stacey thought she saw some redness under his tongue earlier tonight, but we weren’t able to get a really good look; he just doesn’t want us playing around in there yet. Frustrating!

Because it’s been such a big part of his personality so far, it’s really weird for me right now that he can’t or won’t stick his tongue out. I realize that I’m probably overreacting a little bit, but still… I miss his tongue!

We have a post-procedure followup appointment with the ENT sometime this week yet; hopefully he can explain what’s going on, tell us that there really isn’t anything to worry about, and that everything is fine.

So, hopefully no worries, and Dad can stop freaking out!

We’re home. Benjamin’s first “surgery” is complete.

The ENT that did the procedure said it went extremely well, and the staff all loved him–he’s quite the little charmer! He ended up with a single stitch under his tongue that should dissolve on its own.

He also looked pretty darn adorable in his little surgery gown. ;)

We haven’t had a chance to see the results yet, really, because Benjamin’s still a little foggy and cranky from the anesthetic, and we don’t want to have him sticking his freshly-snipped tongue out just yet… We’ll look more at it later today once he’s settled down a little bit more.

We attempted to get a ‘before’ picture of his snakelike tongue; not sure how great it is, but you should be able to see what the problem was pretty easily. We’ll post again with that picture once we also have an ‘after’ picture to accompany it, for comparison’s sake.

[edit: unable to see his 'new' tongue in action at all today. The anesthetic was with him to a degree for most of the day, keeping him irritable. He's also been drooling like a maniac, and it seems his tongue is too sore for him to stick out for us so far. Looks like we're waiting a bit yet before we can see the work and the results... -Alex]

I think we’ve mentioned before that Benjamin was born a bit tongue-tied. The bit of tissue that connects his tongue to the bottom of his mouth (called the frenulum, and we all have this), is attached much too close to the tip of his tongue; it prevents him from sticking his tongue out all the way, and could be impacting his ability to speak properly.

In some babies, it not only can cause speech issues, but may affect eating. Benjamin never has had any problems eating or nursing, so it’s not that bad for him, but his tongue is still rather tightly bound to the bottom of his mouth, and you can see his poor little forked tongue when he tries to stick it all the way out.

In less than a week, on April 19th, his tongue will finally be free. After discussions with his pediatrician, we’ve scheduled Benjamin for a frenulectomy to correct the problem. As it turns out, he’s old enough now that they have to actually knock him out with a general anesthetic/laughing gas, and then snip the thing. The ENT (ears-nose-throat) doctor doing the procedure has told us Benjamin will also get a stitch or two to help prevent reattachment of the tissue and help maintain the freedom he’ll have.

So that’s great news. As endearing and cute as his little forked tongue is, it will be nice to have this finally remedied.

The only thing that’s, well, obscene about this is how much the doctors/etc are charging. By the time we’ve had our initial visit, the surgery itself and all the related trimmings (laughing gas, etc.), and the follow-up visit, the total charges (before insurance) will exceed approximately $1500. For what is basically a simple half-second snip with a pair of scissors of some tissue that Ben won’t even feel being cut due to a lack of nerve endings in the area…

It seems a bit, umm… excessive, really.

Sure, we get that he needs to be knocked out so they can actually do the work, but wow. The initial consult to get the ’surgery’ set up was billed at (pre-insurance, again) $275. The ENT did–literally–nothing! Some racket they’ve got goin’ on there, for sure…

Anyway, wish our little guy well for his first-ever surgery!