Since the time that Maaike was born it was clear that her tongue was too big. Such a crazy thing. A abnormality that I would have never thought of. What was unclear was what needed to be done about it. Would she grow into it? Would it grow bigger with her? Would it function? Could we chemically shrink it? Would we have to medically remove some of it? I prayed and hoped and wished on stars that we could avoid putting it to the knife, that one day it would magically shrink, but it didn't.
When Maaike had her dental restoration surgery we discovered her tongue's first ugly secret: the weight of her tongue was causing her roots to dissolve under her bottom teeth. Then, at our last appointment with our ENT the second secret came to light, that her bottom jaw was thinning and protruding to accommodate her tongue. It had to go...at least part of it.
Is it weird to lament the lost of a tip of a tongue? Am I crazy that I cried just thinking about that ounce of flesh ending up in a garbage can somewhere? Would it be incinerated? End up in the land fill? In the end it didn't matter. It needed to go...for the love we feel for the tip of her tongue is only the tip of the iceberg.
