Tongue-Lip Adhesion

A little before Thanksgiving, Joseph had a "sleep study" done. He had six electrodes attached to his head and was covered in a sock that had a hole for his face. They monitored and recorded data for six hours.

The sleep study showed that he had obstructive sleep apnea and no indications of central apnea. His apnea episodes happened on average 35x an hour. What the pictures don't show is that Joe was getting tired. His eyes were bloodshot and he was lethargic. The surgeon explained that it was like Joe was running a marathon. At the beginning of the race, he could keep pace fine, but the longer it went on, the  more trouble he would have keeping up. Surgery was needed.

Before we could discuss our options, I had a dream. I dreamed that Joe would have a surgery to move his tongue forward so he could breathe. So, when we were presented with three options: tracheotomy, tongue-lip adhesion, and jaw distraction; I knew we needed to do the tongue-lip adhesion.

Joe, three days old: 

Joe, twelve days old:

Joe, thirteen days old: 

Joe, fourteen days old

I'm glad I had that inspiration because the next several weeks were hard on us. Rae and I were sick the day of surgery, so I was not there and Mr. Graff had to work. Tongue lip adhesion works by cutting the back of the tongue, moving it forward, anchoring it to the jaw bone and stitching the front of the tongue to the bottom lip. This opens up the airway, just enough, to help Joe breathe until his jaw grows and he can breathe without the tongue-lip adhesion. 

So, at 18 days of age, Joe had his first surgery.