"I will never regret revising her tie..."

So my "baby" is now a big 2.5yr old toddler. She's #5 and we had a really rough start to nursing. For MONTHS I suffered in agony with vasospasms, pain and misery nursing. I am a LLL Leader and had a lot of access to IBCLCs. More than your average person anyways. But 7 IBCLCs, a couple pediatricians, an infant feeding specialist and a few more "experts" all really let us down with not one suggesting tongue or lip tie. 

At 7.5 months old someone random suggested it to me leading me to another IBCLC in the area who then directed me to Dr Ghaheri, the nearest provider to me but still 450 miles away. Long story short we flew at 4 in the morning to Portland when my baby was 8.5 months old. Took the MAX to his office for an appointment at 10:30am. She was revised and we were on a plane home by 2pm. 

We had gobs of bodywork before revision (from literally 2 days old) and some afterwards as well. I religiously did the stretches but I also was as gentle as I could be and worked very hard at making it a game for her. And slowing within a couple months the pain improved. It took about 10 weeks to be entirely pain free. More amazing is the other changes in her because of revision. Her whole body used to be like picking up a wooden plank! Her neck stiffness went away, her whole body loosened. She even just seemed more comfortable in her own skin. It's stunning! 

Since then she does have occasional regressions were her body or mouth will tighten up for a couple days. During that time it usually becomes a little painful for me to nurse but never like it was before revision. It's quite mild. And it always passes in a few days. Keep in mind this is now 1 year and 10 months post revision.

Her revision led to me thinking about ME. See I suffered from chronic migraines. Chronic like 28+ days per month, almost daily migraines. It was horrific. Low and behold we went back 13 months ago all the way to Portland for my own revision. Immediately following revision I had TWENTY ONE DAYS STRAIGHT migraine free. Seriously....3 full weeks when I generally never went more than a day or two at most without one. More amazing is the other symptoms it solved for me too that I didn't even know were because of a tongue tie. Insomnia for example. Heck it's even lowered anxiety, it fixed digestive problems, neck and back tension, and more. It's truly astounding. I do get migraines still but I have way more days without than with one. And they are way easier to treat. One dose of meds almost always knocks it right out. I too have regressions which are getting milder and further between. 

A lot of people here say the stories posted here are scary. My goal in posting is for you to see there are good stories too. My baby did not scream and cry post revision. She did not refuse to breastfeed. She was a little whiny for a few days. Days 5-7 were the worst but she still wasn't crying. She was just clingy. By day 10 she was back to normal. She did hate the stretches. That wasn't fun. I made it a game as much as I could which honestly felt laughable at first. I sang a song I didn't mind ruining for her while I did them....no Row Row Row Your Boat in this house anymore. And the game did become fun for her within two weeks. In fact she still likes to play it today! She admittedly is still wary of men with facial hair and white lab coats. Sorry Dr Ghaheri. And she definitely didn't like going back to his office for my revision. LOL! But she was fine. My revision was not painful. In fact I took ibuprofen exactly once and that was more because I thought I would need it. Bedtime the day of revision. I never did "need" it. Pain isn't a word I would use to describe my revision or recovery. My tongue was uncoordinated and that was super annoying when I ate for a couple weeks. And I yawned a lot for like weeks. *shrugs* Go figure. LOL! 

So just know that my experience is not unique. It's not rare. It's just that we don't always come back to post because when revisions go well we just move on. I would do revision again monthly if I had to. I am saving money to take kids 1-4 back to Portland some day. If you're on the fence remember my story. It was worth it. I still nurse my "baby" as she runs from thing to thing these days. She still stops to climb into my lap and ask for "nuh nuh Mommy". It's still her favorite thing, what she needs when she's tired or get hurts. We have that connection every day. My baby will wean.....we are likely more than half way thru our nursing relationship. And I will certainly cry at the close of this stage of my life. But I will never regret sticking it out those 8.5 months. And I will never regret revising her tie. Never.

~Jen Montz