Back in October, the little man underwent surgery to remove his adenoids, tonsils, and to clip his frenulum. Apparently, the size of both his adenoids and tonsils were beyond impressive. While it is never easy to watch your little one prepped for surgery, I learned many things that early morning as we arrived at Meriter Hospital.
1. My little man, while sweet and tender is also very brave. He quickly put on his game face answering questions, changing into dressing gowns, using the IPad to distract and calm while awaiting his surgery.
2. Scheduling surgery for your son at the very hospital where your husband is a surgeon makes the entire process much easier. How sweet it was to see staff greet us as we followed Dr. Larson through the hallways. My heart was simultaneously calmed and filled with pride as I thought of my husband greeting his own patients and interacting with staff each work day. And, while he chose to be "dad" instead of "doctor" on the day of our son's surgery, his calming presence and professional demeanor encouraged this mama's tender heart as I watched him wheel our son back for surgery.
3. Spending three hours post-op cuddling your son on a hospital gurney (after a successful surgery) is precious time well spent. Strains the back, but warms the soul.
4. How easy it is to take the health of your children for granted. Many times throughout the morning, I thought of the many families who arrive at the hospital each day for other reasons. The day of Joey's surgery, I was grateful to walk out of the hospital with a smiling little boy in recovery, for the comfort of nursing him back to health in our own home, and the privilege of hearing his little voice change over the next few hours, days and weeks.
Thank you for this post. We are considering doing a frenectomy/frenulectomy simultaneously with a T&A ourselves. I have been nervous about doing both at once, and your photos and story provide a nice positive balance to the horror stories one can find on the internet. I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question here, as I didn't know how to privately message you? I had considered doing the frenectomy separately through a dentist who can use a laser, which is quicker and less painful. However, doing it all at once does have its benefits. Did you find it difficult to do tongue exercises while he was in pain from the T&A? Did you find it difficult to monitor the healing of the scab while he also had a healing tongue? Thanks for any thoughts you are willing to share!
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