Tongue Tied

Of all my kids (you know, all 500 of them), Madison is my social butterfly. She can strike up a conversation about anything, anywhere, to anyone. In her opinion, if a person says hi to her, it means that they want to dive head first in to a 3 hour conversation about all things Dora, Spongebob, sisters and brothers, and everything in between. Fall asleep during the conversation? No biggie, she'll carry it on her own until you wake up.

To say she has the gift of gab would be an understatement.

Now, true to the typical 4 year old form, she is into asking 400 million questions a day. That is 400 million questions in addition to her normal talking spree. Seriously, she even talks in her sleep.

Needless to say, when I was told she definitely had a speech issue, I was kind of shocked. How could she, of all people, have an issue with speech? Of course I knew that she was hard to understand sometimes, but I figured that was just her age. We checked her hearing to make sure it wasn't because of that, which it wasn't. Then, we sent her to a speech pathologist that works with the school district to see if intervention was necessary. It was.

Hello, mommy guilt. All I could think is that I did, or didn't do, to cause this. Trinity was using words like 'distinguished' when she was 3. Madison could use bigger words as well, but you couldn't understand her well. So of course, it was my fault. I didn't talk to her enough with eye contact, or I didn't enunciate enough. I didn't work as hard with her, or I ignored the signs. This went on for a good year.

Until last week.

Madison's speech pathologist comes up to me and says "You know, we think it would be beneficial to have Madison come in an additional day for some one-on-one time....oh, and by the way- we were looking at her mouth, because she sounded a little muffled, and we noticed her tongue is tied- have you ever had that checked out?"

I was all "uh, wha?" I had no idea- tongue tied kids always have a failure to thrive issue as babies, so Madison didn't have one- she was a porker! Then they showed me. Her tongue, at the tip, was almost split like a snake (except attached still). She couldn't touch the tip of her tongue to the roof of her mouth. It tongue was tethered to the bottom of her mouth, and yet somehow, through thousands of tooth brushings over the last 4 years, countless dentist and doctor visits, it had gone unnoticed.

Hello, more mommy guilt.

So, after my initial shock, I scheduled her a visit with her doctor to discuss options. In most cases of a tongue tie, physicians will leave the tongue tie alone, unless it affects their dental hygiene, speech, or developmental issues. Clearly, her speech was affected- so off with the tongue (kidding, just the tie). Madison's doctor was disappointed that he didn't catch it, since he is the one who wanted her evaluated for a speech issue to begin with. He says he could do the procedure in the clinic, but that it would involve a local anesthesia, on top of a very still child while he dissects her tongue from the bottom of her mouth.

Madison and still don't belong in the same sentence. Ever.

So, he sent us to an ENT, who would put her under general anesthesia, in an operating room. Anyone who knows me, knows I flipped my lid. But, that was my option...or so i thought.

Part two.....