Monday, August 23, 2010

What a difference a day can make.

Last night, Makaila was having difficulties due to diagnosed conditions, and we were on pins and needles about the test result we were to receive at her doctor appointment today.

Why was she going to the doctor? Kai was born extremely tongue-tied. As tied as she could get. Allow me to explain what that means. The membrane under the tongue that attaches it is usually connected to the middle of the tongue. When someone is tongue-tied, however, it comes out and connects to near or at the tip of the tongue, making it impossible for the person to stick their tongue out past their lower lip. With Kai, this membrane connected all the way to the tip of her tongue.

Being tongue-tied is a hereditary condition, which she shares with my youngest son. However, unlike my son, it was affecting Kai’s ability to eat. Without being able to wrap her tongue around a nipple, she could not get good suction. As a result, getting food into her was proving a challenge. That was why we were at the doctor’s today, to have that membrane snipped so she could eat with ease. The procedure went well, us staying in the room throughout, and Kai came through like a trooper.

Although we were to get the lab test result while there, fate made us wait hours more, seeing as the lab hadn’t released them. With nerves still on edge, we took Kai home. Once there, we were amazed to see how easily she could eat. In addition, there was no throwing up. Her constant squirming due to her immature digestive track problem seemed to almost disappear. For the first time in her sixteen days alive, Kai was experiencing life without being in constant pain, and we couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Several more hours went by before we got the call we’d been waiting for from the doctor, who called personally to deliver the lab results. I watched the look on my daughter’s face as she listened to the doctor, and my heart soared with each passing moment. By the time she hung up, she was positively beaming when she told me, “All the tests came back negative!”

“Even the Cystic Fibrosis one?” I asked, my voice tinged with incredulousness I felt.

“Yes, even that one,” my daughter said.

It took a few seconds for the news to fully register. And when it did, I didn’t know whether to cry, shout out my joy, jump up and down or all of the above. The world stopped, and for the first time in months, we all took deep cleansing breaths, letting out the stress that had been and drinking in the utter relief we felt.