Lingual Frenectomy & Pure Hell

Sam had surgery yesterday. It turned out to be a lot more than we had originally thought. We thought it was going to be a simple snip of the connected tissues under his tongue and under his upper lip, but it turned out to be amazingly tormenting. He was sunshiny and sweet before we left for our appointment. He smiled and brushed his teeth and was cooperative. They of course did their sneak attack and shoved a needle in his arm with ketamine to help him fall asleep. I know from my own experience that it's unpleasant and to this day I hate the woman who did that to me so I wont be surprised if Sam feels the same way. It's to see your child struggle and feel so alone when everyone around him has a secretive agenda. Getting medication in him has been really difficult. From the moment he came out of surgery he has cried and struggled with the changes in his mouth. He doesn't quite know what to do with his tongue and the amount of raw tissue in his mouth is astounding. I held his hand while he was in recovery and he seemed very peaceful. I kissed his cheek and his eyes flew open with surprise. He didn't know where he was or why his face felt the way it did. Unfortunately he's at the age where he understands some, but not enough to be able to communicate or know how to respond to whats happened. I truly believe he feels we are all being mean to him and that he's being punished for something. I hate this and I admit it makes me cry and feel guilt. I'm not so good at all of this. He wakes up crying in pain and his mouth is so raw and swollen and there just isn't much I can do. He's even refused to wear his pull-ups and wants to lay around bare. He acts as if he's been through shock and it's so upsetting. I feel like such a terrible parent. As you can see from the pictures below, the tissue under his lip and tongue are obviously a problem and need to be corrected. It's just amazing how awful it was. They ended up having to cut away even more tissue than we planned. The doctor cauterized the wounds so his mouth is blackened and blistered. They say he'll be raw and swollen for the next couple of days. I'm praying for less pain and hope he can rest....so far, it's not working out that way. We will see.