Ryan’s surgery

Mr. Ryan is was tongue tied.

We checked in to the hospital this morning at 6am for Ryan’s surgery to have his tongue clipped.

Wes noticed that Ryan’s tongue looked really connected at the top a month or two ago. We did some research and an ENT doc recommended that we have it clipped at some point.   The option was there to wait to see if it affected his speech but we didn’t want to always wonder if his tongue was holding him back.  He couldn’t even stick it out, for heaven sakes.  So, we went for it.

We got to the hospital at 6am and they got us right in to a room where they checked his vitals and put his little hospital gown on him.  At 6:30 all of the pre-op was done and we got to sit and wait until 7:30am for the actual procedure.  I refused to let Ryan crawl on the hospital floor so Wes and I took turns walking in circles around the pre-surgery unit.  There were lots of kids there this morning with fabulous nurses helping us keep them entertained. 

7:30 finally rolls around and we met with the doc and anesthesiologist and off we went walking down the halls to the surgery room.  They wouldn’t let us even near the room so we handed Ryan off to a nurse and sat in the waiting room [and talked to family friends Jeff & Susie Bradshaw] while Ryan had surgery.  Ryan didn’t show an ounce of concern until the hand-off.  He knew something wasn’t right at that point.

The tongue-clipping went well and they came and got us out of the waiting room.  Ryan was already awake by the time we got back there and a fabulous nurse was holding him nice and close to her keeping him calm.  He burst in to tears as soon as he saw Wes and I.  I was shocked at how quickly the anesthesia wore off and he was back to his normal self.  He was hungry and thirsty and downed a full apple juice box [a surgery treat] and then another entire cup of apple juice our cute nurse got for him.  He ate rice cakes [a favorite of his] and immediately passed all of the “discharge from the hospital” tests which included eating and drinking.

I’m sooooo glad we did it at this age.  Ryan wasn’t scared at all of the hospital and doctors – in fact, he thought it was kinda fun to be somewhere new with new faces.  We definitely had it the easiest out of all of the kids there today simply because of Ryan’s age. 

The doc said it will probably take a few weeks for his brain to tell his tongue that it can now stick out but he’s already testing his new freedom.

Ryan, you were a trooper today bud!  Many thanks for the phone calls and text messages checking in on our little monkey.

[I have to say I was very impressed today with the hospital.  We had 3 nurses and they were all fabulous.  The doc was fabulous.  And the anesthesiologist was fabulous.  All around, a positive experience!]

The hardest part about the day was that I slept for one hour last night.  I set my alarm to wake up at 1am to give Ryan a bottle [it was the last possible moment he could eat or drink] and never fell back asleep.  Lets just say I’m a walking zombie and can’t wait for Nate to go to bed at 6:45pm because I am going to bed, too.