Scary Medical Procedures

Even though Benjamin is barely 2 months old, he has already survived quite a lot of trauma in the scary medical procedure department. The first one was the circumcision. Ouch! We did the back and forth debate about whether to snip or not to snip, and went around in circles. At the end of the day, it just seemed easier to circumcise him then to eventually have to try to teach him to deal with and clean the turtleneck. Also, research about not spreading stds as easily blah blah blah. So we decided to do it. He hadn't had a wet diaper at the hospital when his doctor was leaving, so she wouldn't do it. We had to take him in to the Swedish circumcision clinic, which was actually probably a good thing. Its this youngish guy dr, and basically all he does is circumcisions, all day long. So he at least knows what he is doing. Loren was a lot more concerned than I was about the whole thing, and asked the doc a ton of questions beforehand. In the event of an earthquake during the surgery, it would be more likely for the doctor to cut off his finger than any of Benito's important boy-parts. And the complications seemed all very fixable, and the recovery pretty quick, so that was all very reassuring.

As much as I did not want to be there for it, I figured if I was going to put the little guy through it, I had to be able to watch. It was more complicated than I thought it would be, actually. They have to strap him down, which sounds awful, but wasn't that bad. They wrap a little blanket over his chest, and tuck it under something, to keep his upper half from wiggling. Then there are wide pieces of fabric that go over his little thighs and get velcroed down. He got topical anesthetic, baby tylenol, and I was in charge of giving him a pacifier dipped in sugar water. He did cry, but not worse than when we changed his diaper, which he hated at the time, mostly because it made him cold, I think. It was really warm in the room though, so at least he had that going for him. I thought it would be one straightforward little clip, but they actually have to put 4 clamps on his little baby foreskin, and slice with a scalpel. It was pretty scary to watch. But everything was fine, and there were no problems.

It did make diaper changing more exciting for the next week or so. You have to make an ice cream cone of neosporin on the cicrumcision every time, and it was all red and ouchy looking. But he really didn't mind it, as far as I could tell. Combined with the umbelical cord stump, there was a whole lot to watch out for. The stump was really pretty gross, and would get stuck to his diaper, which I thought must hurt, but Benjamin never minded. He is such a tough guy. Now that there are no injuries to look out for, the diaper changing is much less worrisome. Of course now there are other things to contend with, like long range peeing ability, ever increasing wigglyness, and I won't even start on his poop producing capabilities. Its like he is working for a gold medal in pooping. I had no idea such a small person could produce such large quantities of poop so frequently.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The other medical procedure was even scarier than the circumcision. The lactation specialist at the hospital pointed out to us that Benjamin was literally tongue tied. The frenulum, which is the little piece of skin that attaches the tongue to the bottom of the mouth, reached all the way to the end of his tongue. This can cause difficulty with breast feeding, and later on can also create problems with speech. Benjamin was a champ eater, and his doctor said that for the most part the frenulum stretches, and might not cause any difficulty with speaking, but also that it is a quick easy fix now, and more difficult later. Long story short, we decided to have it clipped.

I took him to the specialist that does this, and it took her one glance at his open mouth to say yes, we should clip it. The whole procedure took approximately 5 seconds. She has these little scissor looking things, that seem like something the dentist would use. It took her longer to put topical anesthetic on him than to do the procedure. The nurse held him on her lap, and they wanted me to feed him right after, since that helps calm him, and is somehow beneficial for the healing process. He was crying anyway, since he was hungry, so I wasn't to worried about that, and I knew he wouldn't feel it, because he was numbed up. So I didn't think it would be that bad. Wrong! They handed him to me when they were done, and he was wailing, which I am more or less used to. I tried to feed him immediately, but he was having trouble latching, understandable what with the numb tongue. And his mouth was pretty bloody, which had to taste weird for him. So the whole thing was pretty alarming for him. The part that just killed me was his expression. He had these eyes that were so scared. I had never seen him look scared before, and it was heartbreaking. And the thing that is supposed to comfort him, eating, wasn't working right. Very scary for a little guy. I was practically in tears, it was really hard to see. But it was very short lived. Maybe a minute. But it seemed longer. He did get latched on, and was able to start eating, which calmed him right down. In 5 minutes it was like nothing had ever happened. I would put it about on par with his 2 month immunizations, maybe a little worse. But now he is all better, and seems to have forgiven me for everything. Whew!