Wednesday, February 26, 2014

New Tounge

Zahra undergo a minor operation for her tongue-tie couple of weeks ago. It's something that she has and we noticed since she was a baby. We already consulted the specialist and he said as long as she can breastfeed, there's nothing to worry about, and that we'll worry about her speech later. So we didn't do any snipping on her. If you noticed, there is a few of her childhood photo sticking out the tongue and it forms a lovely heart-shape due to the tie. 

This is how normal tongue tie looks like. Pic googled.

She is 4 now and her speech is fine (at least to me) so I didn't know that some of her pronunciation is weird. Not until we went to see ENT to check on Emir because of his speech delay. We wanted to check if he has any hearing problem (and thank God everything is alright) and we brought Zahra together and they were playing and laughing in the doc's room and that's when the doc asked if Zahra has tongue tie. I guess he has seen thousands of patients and can pick up any symptom with close eyes. 

So there she goes, an appointment for laser cut the tongue tie under full GA.

Alhamdulillah everything went well and she's all good. The only challenge is to dress her in the OT dress and she refused to wear it and how to persuade her to go to the OT room. 4yo kid is full of wisdom and has their own thinking, we can't just pin her down and force her right?

Initially, she was given a normal children OT gown in yellow and she started to cry, refusing to wear it

"Zahra tanak tukar baju. Baju ni tak cantik"

"Ok, mommy pakai together. Doctor nak check mommy..so Zahra teman mommy k. Nak masuk bilik tu kena pakai baju macam ni"

"Tanakkkk baju ni tak cantikkkkk"

Dah start berdramaaaaa. Thankfully the nurses and doctors are very kind and they helped us a lot, by persuading her and give us sweet time to dress her. One of the nurse siap pergi cari gown lain and give her the adult version.

"Ok Zahra pakai yg ni..yg ni besarrrr kembang2 macam princess"

Boleh?

Finally when we get to dress her, we have to push her to the waiting room before the OT room, and spent about 15mins there..so she started to feel anxious and realized that the procedure is about her. I keep on telling her that doctor wants to make her tongue beautiful like mommy and daddy and she can stick it out very far (with demo). All the attendants are very good with kids too (as most of them have children around Zahra's age) so they know how to entertain her. They give coloring books, talk to her, say that she's pretty like a princess (suka la budak tu!) and make balloon out of the gloves. There are times when she started to be cranky and asking for her daddy but only one parent can be there. That's the longest 15 mins I've ever been.

Princess and her daddy in normal ward, before the op

Getting ready for the op. One of the nurse offered to snap this pic and look at her sour face.

While waiting for the op. Doc giving her funny face glove-balloon. So sweeeet.


When we were  in OT, she had to suck the anesthesia gas and kena buat macam2 to persuade her. The GA siap bagi Zahra main game dekat his hp boleh? I told her that doctor want to test if she can blow the tube just like she blow balloon and her swimming pool because at the end of the tube there is small pump that kembang and kempis according to her breathing and the trick works. Gigih la dia bernafas in that tube and then pengsan hehehe.

I had to leave her with the doctors after that. Parents are not allowed during procedure.

Post procedure. It is oxygen tube to  make sure she has enough oxygen to breathe.

The oxygen and heartbeat monitoring. Reading is constantly 98-100 which is good.

Food provided. Plain porridge and icecream which she takes none. She was too sleepy to eat after that and just asked for a bottle of milk.

The moment she woke up, she saw her wrist is bandaged with drip and started to cry, request me to take it off. Normally the hospital won't take it off because if the patient vomit out or something else happen, they can plug the tube directly without poking new needle. But since she started to get angry, we decided to take it off and cross fingers for anything bad. Thank goodness no vomit after a bottle of milk and she's all good.


Went to playground in the hospital after she's fully awake. Bounce back happily like nothing happen.

She slept for about 3 hours after the procedure due to GA effects. The doc told us that there will be no pain at all because it's laser but when she's all sober she said to me;

"Mommy, lidah zahra?!" 

And started to merengek. She was prescribed with painkiller spray but she refused to use it and the next morning (about 24hrs after the operation) suddenly she cheerful said

"Mommy, lidah Zahra dah OK!!"

So...I guess there is a subtle pain for her.


Post op. The yellowish is the area that is cut by laser. It's ulcer but it's gone after about a week. We went for follow up last week and she's healing accordingly.

Last but not least, couldn't help not to post this. I feel like Grey Anatomys wannabe. 

Anyway, I didn't notice any significant changes in her speech and she still trying to accustom to her new tongue. We need to encourage her to practice her new tongue capability by sticking out the tongue as far as she can (ie: licking icecream).

All in all, she was a brave and good young lady, even the doctors and nurses gave her that compliment and I am so proud of her.

4 comments:

  1. i pulak rase seriau baca pasal ni. haha. kuatlah zahra ni. rilek je lepas kluar OT. ttbe rse proud :)

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  2. you teman sampai masuk dalam ye?
    me tak berani. semua azwan buat. hahhahahah

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    Replies
    1. zahra nak mommmmmyyyyyyyyy. daddy pun nak jugak, tapi kena masuk sorg je, so dia pilih mommy hehe

      Delete
  3. amboi grey anatomy! :D
    kak aan buzz dil, my contact book went haywire.. i dun have yr number, please buzz me at whatapps

    ReplyDelete