On Friday, Elijah went to the ear, nose, throat specialist person that the regular doctor sent us to. Apparently, the medical term for how is tongue is, is tongue tied. (His tongue looks just about like the one in the picture on that page.)

We’ve figured he’d need to get it clipped for some time now and it’s finally going to happen. We’d rather it get done sooner than later. So on August 7th, I get to go to the hospital here at 7.30am and he’ll go in at 8.30. I’m not nervous about the surgery itself so much, the doctor said they do have to put him out but the actual procedure should only take about five minutes. Then within an hour, he should be feeling fine, maybe have some Tylenol or something; she said there’s not many nerves in that area, so there should be very little discomfort/pain.

What I’m nervous about is just the whole thing. I’ve never had to actually admit myself or anyone else to surgery. I’m hoping Steve can get the morning off to help out because I also think Elijah might freak. For some reason, when we’ve been going to the doctor these last two times, he’s been saying saying things like, “I’m not going to sleep at the doctor’s,” and “I don’t want to get on a die bed.”

I’m not sure why originally, but a few weeks ago, we were watching Scrubs and it was the episode where Dr. Cox has hurt his back and he’s got Carla taking him out to the parking lot on a hospital bed with a sheet over him like he was dead. Elijah said something about that, referring to the bed as a “die bed.” I tried to tell him that a hospital is a place where people go to get better and all that jazz, but he continues to call it a “die bed.” On the bright side, however, I think he thinks death is just a temporary, non-moving state - like most four-year-olds do, I’m sure.

So I’m just a bit concerned about the actual giving him the gas mask and his going to sleep. I’m sure things will work out just fine in the end, but that part still makes me a bit nervous.