The tongue saga continues
Needless to say, since Adeline’s near self-inflicted-tongue-decapitation 12 days ago, I’ve been closely monitoring her mouth (“Does your tongue hurt, Sweetie? What about now? How ’bout now? And now?”) because I so desperately want this ordeal behind us and for my baby girl to be happy and eating regular food again. Last week, Joey and I, while scrutinizing Addy’s mouth one evening, noticed that most of her tongue had completely healed, except for a section that wasn’t adhering itself back together and creating a flap on her tongue. Her stitches had dissolved days ago and she seemed to be experiencing little to no pain when eating. So, on one hand, we were happy her tongue had healed, but fearful that it had done a half-assed job.
I took Adeline to her pediatrician to further investigate. He had looked at her tongue 2 days after the epic tongue bite occurred and saw no issue with how it was recovering then. Different story this time. Insert long string of profanities here.
Indeed, Adeline’s tongue did not heal correctly. The doctor thinks that either a stitched popped out too early or they dissolved too quickly, and one section healed without ever sealing shut because there was nothing holding that part of her tongue together (sounds so gross, doesn’t it?). So…we have to start over. Yes, you read that correctly. We have to go through this again.
Addy will be seeing an ear, nose and throat pediatrician on April 23 (the earliest we could get in), who will look at her already-overly-traumatized tongue and determine how to repair it. Sedation will be a must, which I dread based on how she reacted to it last time. Words like “laser” and “more stitches” were thrown out, and all I wanted to do when I heard them was burst into tears and kick the universe in the shin because, seriously??? Does it not know how much this sucked the first time around? Trust me, I would prefer to kick the universe in the nuts, but since a stubborn tongue wound is a minor injury in the scheme of things, I figure I have to show some kind of graciousness.
So. This was Round One. I am hopeful that Round Two will somehow be easier. At least I can be prepared with an arsenal of Jello, pudding and ice cream this time. I just hope Adeline doesn’t develop any weird phobias around this. And holy shit, if she ever decides to pierce her tongue after this? I will remind her every day of what we all went through to keep her tongue in tact in the first place.
Many more updates on this subject to come. Ugh.
Oh, poor Addy! Sorry you guys have to go through this whole ordeal again. But she’s such a brave little girl!! It’s amazing how resilient little kids are, isn’t it?! You have a good outlook on this though–considering how many much worse possibilities are out there, this will just be a bad memory very soon. Give Addy a big hug for us–and an extra scoop of ice cream too 🙂
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Joining you in your shin kicking vs the universe, and I am bringing a bat – think movie office space – us vs printer – I got your back.
Seriously though, hugs and prayers of strength for Addy, you and the whole family. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
Oh lady, I’m so sorry…Becs told me about it this morning and I immediately called my brother (hope you don’t mind) who is an ENT resident at the U of C and studying specifically pediatric stuff….he is super hard to get ahold of, but as soon as I talk to him, I am going to mention Addy and see what he says…Where is your ped ENT??? I will let you know what he says…
Thank you so much, E! Addy’s tongue seems to be getting better, but there’s still a bit of it that’s not sealing up. At this point, I’m mostly concerned about having to sedate her and if this could do any damage to taste buds or speech.
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