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| safe in daddy's arms |
Clara had her first surgery last week - hopefully it will be her last.
Some of you smarty pants readers diagnosed Clara's condition after I wrote about our challenges with breast feeding. Clara was born with ankyloglossia, or a short frenulum, otherwise known as tongue-tied. In short, the process that connects her tongue to the floor of her mouth was very tight, inhibiting sufficient movement of her tongue. This condition makes it difficult for babies to suckle properly and could even cause speech pathologies later in life. Yikes. We wanted to fix that pronto.
(I have to point out that her condition was caught by one of the nurses while we were in the hospital and was totally missed by two pediatricians.) Anyway...our pediatrician somewhat dismissed it at Clara's first appointment, yet the lactation specialist I met with was insistent that I have it evaluated again for treatment.
It was frustrating to get treated. It's something that is typically treated within the first few days of birth (so I've been told), but it took us nearly THREE WEEKS to get into a specialist to treat her. (well, even after three weeks, the first specialist we saw refused to treat her before she was a year old!) It was frustrating. Health care is frustrating. Here I had a newborn baby that I was unable to adequately feed and these doctors offices were not very sympathetic to the situation. I was calling offices daily to see if we could get her in...blah blah...it was a shotty operation that makes me pissed just to think about. Why would anyone dick around when a baby's health is a concern??
Long story short...she got it fixed last week...she cried a lot...made me want to cry too. Poor baby.
Oh dear! I am sorry that things were so shitty and glad that they have been remedied! Health care is frusterating! And we both work within it, imagine our patients trying to navigate the system, it is infuriating to me.
ReplyDeleteaww! poor sweet baby. i'm glad you got it fixed though. my best friend had this but never got it fixed - she doesn't have speech problems but she can hardly stick her tongue out of her mouth.
ReplyDeletePoor baby! Glad the problem was fixed. Is she feeding better now?
ReplyDeleteArgh! We have so many communication problems between our doctors, insurance company, etc. too! It's frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad your baby is allright. It's a blessing you have so many caring people around you to give you the insight your pediatricians couldn't. My husband had eyesight problems that could have been fixed as a child but went ignored.
Clara is beautiful. I can see the resemblance.
Bless her heart! I hope she's feeling better and is eating like a champ now!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I didn't know anything about this issue. But I had been thinking about Clara wanting to eat every 2 hours. That's just more frequent than normal - usually it's about every 4 hours.
ReplyDeleteAnd then when you said she seemed like she was starving. I knew something was wrong, but had no idea what it could be.
I think it's a big part of why breast feeding has been so painful - you had to do it too frequently!
I hope this helps! Poor Clara and poor you!
I'm glad you got it fixed! Sorry for all the frustration...I truly wonder about pediatricians sometimes...I loved mine in Chicago and was so sad to leave him...P.S. What camera/lens do you use to take photos of Clara? I really like it, but I already have an expensive one:) Maybe I'll get it for the next baby :)
ReplyDeleteJulianne had the same thing!!! It's hereditary - so have all of your children checked! Is nursing much easier now?
ReplyDeleteAw, poor little girl! I'm glad it's fixed now and she can eat better. How rough!
ReplyDeletePoor wee tyke, so glad it got fixed! I had some issues when I was just born too, and the doctors COMPLETELY missed it, but a nurse noticed.
ReplyDeleteclara!! so glad its all figured out and she'll be better now
ReplyDeletestay strong mama
sorry to hear all the hoops you had to jump through to get things taken care of. hopefully this will help little clara!
ReplyDeletePoor thing - so glad she got the surgery and hope she and the entire family are better soon!
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Chic 'n Cheap Living
Oh, Jes! I am so glad that everything worked out. I can just imagine your frustration!
ReplyDeleteI hope she recovers completely.
ReplyDeletemy son was born tongue tied too! luckily our pediatrician caught it at his one week appt and he had the surgery shortly after that. he is now a very talkative 3 yr old and you'd never know he was tongue tied as an infant!
ReplyDeleteso glad you got a diagnosis finally!! Hopefully things are soon to be much better!
ReplyDeletePoor babe. I hope she is completely recovered in no time.
ReplyDeleteIs the pain of breastfeeding gone now?
P.S. That picture is frame-worthy.
stephanie@metropolitanmama.net