Tongue bifurcation experience 

Warning!! Photos ahead are gross! This is the healing process to my tongue being split into 2.

Before

"It's just a piercing, it's just a piercing"

I was telling myself as he's slicing my tongue apart 🤣

Shawn and Frankie are awesome,

They talk you through the whole thing, and their calm demeanor is so helpful. The whole process was a lot simpler than I expected and it only took 15min. The sutures in the very back were the worst of them all.

2/10 pain for the split. I was lucky. I've personally had much worse dental procedures so I guess I was a lot more prepared than I thought.

I do still have my frenulum, it goes to my right side. Shawn said with my length and how deep my split is, there was no reason to remove it. However, I asked about this after it was done. I was so nervous I forgot to bring it up before we started, so that's my bad. Although, I wonder if that's why the pain wasn't as bad as expected. I had my sutures in for 7 days. Even though the pain wasn't bad, it's still an intense healing experience.

Upon leaving the shop I didn't feel much of anything at all. Immediately drooling all over the place and it's THICK. No talking either lol. I took a video and startled myself as I moved it accidentally 🤣. I immediately took 2 dissolvable arnica tablets.

20min:  The left side was starting to swell.

1hr 1/2:  Starting to feel tingly lil stab sensations. 

3hrs:  I've made it to my hotel room and can take proper meds. 2 arnica, 3 (200mg) ibuprofen, and a (500mg) Tylenol. I have to watch myself in the mirror to take the meds, but I can swallow them. Have to break the Tylenol in half. Still feeling pretty painless though. The drool is more annoying than anything cause it doesn't break..it just strings everywhere.


Immediately after

5hrs: Drool isn't bloody anymore. Time to make an attempt at sleep. Drool cup in place with a   towel and pillows holding it all up.

 

7.5hrs:  I took more meds. 3 ibuprofen, 2 arnica and a Tylenol.

Pain 1/10 at this point. I really don't feel anything besides my face being in an uncomfortable state.


Woke up for more meds a few hours later. Gotta keep up on it.


14.5hrs:  I survived the first night!! I've gotten maybe 4hrs of sleep? Intermittently. But not doing horrible. Pain is still at maybe a 2. Definitely a bit more swollen this morning. Sleeping is difficult cause you have to prop yourself up to not drown on drool but be face down in the cup lol. I guess it's better than drooling down a towel 🤣

I'm using a text to speech app to make life easier. Definitely can't talk whatsoever lol.

And I've been drinking Pedialyte with a wash bottle lmao. It works SO WELL 


19hr 40min:

Just took meds. Which either I'm getting annoyed, or I'm having a harder time taking them. I'm sure it's the latter tho lol.

3 arnica this time, 2 ibuprofen, 1 Tylenol

Starting to feel the left sutures a lil.

Pain 2/10


24 hours in!

Starting to get some bruising.

My taste buds look so PISSED but I can't feel them as I normally do when they get bad. 

Pain still ain't bad but my jaw keeps locking and idk how to relax any of this shit anymore. I feel like I'm relaxed but then I realize I'm pushing my tongue out. 


I still can't believe I did it.

Pain 2/10, still. Like it's fine but I'll get random lil stabs or throbbing feeling and that'll make it go up but it's quick.  I can also feel my teeth digging into the bottom. I can also feel a bit of the sutures.

I can close my mouth, but hardly.

And I'm starting to see bruising

And I just drooled on my leg 🤣😭


Taking pills is making me gag and pissing me off though. My partner went to Walmart to get some liquid Ibuprofen and broth for me. I'm definitely getting irritated easily, and feeling the mental effects of this at this point. 

26hrs: Getting nauseous, and my partner came back just in time with some chicken broth. For some reason I cannot drink ensure. I drink them all the time normally so I figured they'd be great for this. I cannot drink it without gaging. Big disappointment as I planned most of this week around being able to drink ensure. 😭

1 day, 5hrs: Okay so I tried to take my meds but threw up first. Waited a bit, tried to take meds. Threw up again. Fml. So, I took a bit of time and tried a Pedialyte popsicles and thew that up a lil after I was done too. God damnit.

Pain is still low thankfully. Maybe. 3/10 at this point. I'm annoyed with the drool and having to spend all day trying to injest things and avoid nausea. Fuck.

I started throwing up more an hour later..... 

1day, 17hrs 40min:  2/10 pain  

Threw up 12x last night. It was cyclic and like my body was scheduling puke time 🤮. The absolute worst. I'm so glad I didn't rupture any sutures. Once again, lucky. I feel like hell though.

It stopped around 7am and I got a couple hours of sleep off and on since. Keeping stuff down finally. Just had a Pedialyte popsicle. Not bad, lil tender. The cold feels great on the sides of the tongue but anywhere else is no lol. 

2 days, 2hrs 18min:  I cannot fit my tongue in my mouth anymore.

Still not feeling much pain, 2/10 maybe. My upper lip is getting chapped.

2 days, 15hr 40 min:

Pain is 3/10...Swollen asf... & my tongues look like balls lmao

The bruising is so bad too.

Sleeping last night felt impossible. And I was infuriated even trying. Gravity is not your friend here. There was no way of laying my head down at this point without also chomping into my tongue, making things worse. If I wasn't chomping on it, I was drowning in drool.

2 days, 19hrs in.  I'm so queasy. I wanna close my mouth. The drool is so thick it's hardly coming out of my mouth any more. Just sticking on the roof of my mouth and gathering there till I'm ready to throw up 😭😭 I'm having to manually pull the drool out of my mouth with a soft childrens toothbrush...I'm probably dehydrated but I'm trying my best. Having a Pedialyte popsicle. 

3/10 pain. 100/10 annoying.


3 days 2hrs:  I was able to drink half of a McDonald's strawberry banana smoothie. It felt amazing!!

3 days 6hrs:  Just had 600mg of children's liquid ibuprofen. This one is rated to last 6-8hrs so that's way better than the previous one that was 4hrs. Icing my tongue. Really trying to get some of this swelling down


3 days 8hrs:  Feeling better for sure. Tummy is a big gurgly 😬💩

Tongue is feeling good, and I can mostly fit it in my mouth again. Been icing it throughout a movie. Work on one side for a while, then switch to the other.


Pain level has been pretty consistently low. I'm at 0/10 rn. I do have some random twitches or when the sutures run against the bottom teeth on accident that's not super comfy but even then it's like a random stab and that's it. The stabs themselves are probably a 3/10


I'm thinking I have a high pain tolerance now lol.

My skin feels really weird. Idk if that's from being dehydrated or what...

I'd love some real food omg 😭


3 days 12hrs:  Tried to sleep and chomped my tongue as I was dozing off. Even though my thumb was between my teeth!! Ow!! I feel like I just went backwards 😭

Now I'm up and icing again

4/10 ugh!!!

This is the most it's hurt at all god damnit 😭😭 

3 days 14hrs:  Still have yet to go to bed....

So I took a bath. That was nice. Didn't worry about where I was drooling. Comfy. Lol. Even just looking at my meds is making me queasy at this point ugh. 😭

Swelling is back. Probably from the chomp from earlier 😭. Ice is all melted and my partner is asleep and I don't wanna wake him for ice. (I'm not sure where the ice machine is, and I look horrendous with my discolored tongue hanging out)

I can't -not-bite my tongue it seems. Like even rn as I type I keep relaxing and therefore biting into my tongue. This is dumb and it's what's keeping me up.

3 days 19hrs:  Woke up with my tongue dry asf. The dryness is kinda painful but biotene helps with that pretty quick. 


4 days 1hr:  Having some potatoes!!! YAS BITCH FINALLY

Omg it feels so great. It's taking me like an hour to eat but that's fineeeee omg.

I'm doing a lot better today mentally. But I'm fearing going back to sleep cause I can't keep this swelling down. I keep using ice, but it comes right back. I was told that the swelling will basically be a thing until the sutures come out. Fuck.

But he said 5-7 days so maybe it's time to ask when I'm ready. (Shawn said wait at least another day btw)


4 days, 21hrs:  I was definitely running a fever earlier and last night. I was so fucking cold. But seems I broke that after a bit of ibuprofen. I could only take 200mg at the time. Everything is making me queasy.


Feeling decent rn, icing my tongue.

It only hurts when I'm trying to sleep. Lefty just hangs out of my face, which feels like its pulling on the center. My frenulum is definitely on the right side, as right doesn't move as freely. I hope it's better once the sutures are out.


Ugh. I'm so ready to be thru this.

Getting sutures removed on Tuesday at 1. It's mid Sunday 😵‍💫. Feels like it's forever from now. My tongues are so heavy and purple from all the swelling. And the layer of yuck is grossing me out. But I cant really get it off.


5 days since split:  Having some chicken noodle soup.... Uh... Except I can't eat any of the solids. Even if I chop up the noodles a ton. Damn.

Still felt nice to have the broth. It's better than the chicken broth cubes for sure.

I've added a count down to suture removal. Less than 48hrs.

An end in sight!!!

26hrs till suture removal

26 hrs till removal. 5 days, 17 hrs in.

So sleeping with gauze is a big help. And even keeps it from swelling all night. But as soon as I get up it just swells up again. Still icing it all the time. 

The ick is coming off in chunks. Like dead skin. Super gross. Kinda scary to peel off too so I'm trying not to too much. I have scabs at the end and I don't wanna accidentally pull them off.

I'm so ready to be done with this. 😭

Counting down the hours till removal at this point. Not much changes till I have them out, except that I got the scabs and more plaque off before leaving.

Right before suture removal

Day 7 I got sutures removed!!

Lucky for me, when I arrived for my split, Shawn was finishing up with a couple of artists, Josh and Holly. Thank you Holly for those m&m's! (@minaxmodifications & @holly_h_tattoo)

Shawn actually recommended Josh for my suture removal.  It was so good to have a couple of rad people to chat with throughout this whole experience and they ended up working together to help me out . I can't thank them enough!! They did a fantastic job and were actually really quick about it. It hurt LIKE HELL and the tips were by far the worst part of this whole thing. But thankfully they ended with those lol. I feel SO FREE!!!! I went to Cast Iron Tattoos for this part, and I absolutely recommend anybody go to Josh for post mod help. (Holly travels, but they made an amazing team) 

The swelling has immediately gone down so much. I'm having to hold it together with a towel and gauze between until I can't stand it anymore lol. It fucking hurt though. The tips of it were the worst out of anything the whole time. 8/10 for sure. Fucking awful. But omg what a difference, and I'm so glad they're ouuutttt!!! 😭😭

My tongue already looks pink again and not all scary.

IM SO EXCITED TO EAT 

4hrs after suture removal:

IVE NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED FOR SOME DAMN SCRAMBLED EGGS

Babe and I went to Denny's and omg. Food. Life source!!!! 🤩😍😭

It's hard to eat. This shit is real now, it's time to learn how to use this tongue again. Still pretty swollen, and I'm being really careful. They're tingly and a weird mix of numb but not numb. The lisp is strong too so I'm not trying to talk to anyone rn. The plaque on my tongue is coming off slowly but surely. Oh, and my lips are SO CHAPPED. They hurt, even though I was using chapstick religiously. The corners of my mouth keep cracking and I feel like the joker.

I'm not able to eat much, but I did drink a ton of milk too 😍😭. Like a whole quart 🤣🤣

I've definitely lost weight and I still feel really weak but this is a start!! 

2 days after suture removal:

Swelling has gone down a decent amount, and I'm getting control over the sides. I can already clap them, and flip them around. I can't do each side individually yet. I can do a tiny purr sometimes but it's a disaster LMAO. And trying to pick anything out of my teeth with my tongue isn't working yet either. My brain just goes "wtf is happening" lol

And babe is having me say

"Sally sells seashells by the seashore" 🤣

And the word " sixth" is terrible lol.

We've been to olive garden twice in a row now 😂. Pasta is the easiest thing to eat. I was able to actually eat some chicken today in the soup. And the bread sticks didn't burn today like it did yesterday.

There was a baby at the table next to us and it took everything in me to not stick my tongues out 😝🤣 BE GOOD VII 🤣🤣 

A week since suture removal: Definitely still have a lil bit of swelling but it's getting better. I can do some tricks. Getting each side to do their own thing is still hard. Talking is getting better but I am still lispy. Babe says he doesn't really notice it though except for certain words. Anything with a th sound lol. Sixth. Hahahahahah that one's fucked up 🤣 I've learned that I can gleek? I didn't know that was even a thing but I keep doing it accidentally lol. 

As of 11/18/2022 I am 16 days since the split, 9.5 days since suture removal. I am just starting to see scar tissue forming along the inner parts. No signs of regrowth yet. I play with it literally non-stop. That's all Shawn recommended to do anyhow. Which is fine because I did that before the split too. My tastebuds are coming back along with my sense of taste (I was worried for a couple days about that) and I'm staring to get texture to it again. It was oddly smooth since suture removal. I did wake up this morning to a little bump where one of the tip sutures were, but it must have popped cause the next time I looked it was gone. I do still have some swelling, I notice it mostly in the morning and it settles as the day goes on. But not completely gone as of yet. I've been told it can take about a month. Just tried saying "sixth" again, definitely better than it was days ago.

I bit the right side yesterday, and have been regaining a bit more feeling ever since. I feel the right side more than the left. The very center is still a bit odd feeling. My right side is definitely stronger than the left (as expected tbh) so I am trying to focus on working out the left side. The left side is also longer than the right. Yesterday it was really bothering me, but today its not. I think the right side was more swollen, making it more noticeable (especially since I bit it). I am waiting to see how the rest of this goes, but I am considering going back to have the frenulum cut in the future.

A surprising thing coming from this is that I've been able to stop chewing on the insides of my cheeks. Its always been a chronic, embarrassing thing I never thought I could stop (If you've met me IRL then you've seen me do it). But with not being able to do that for over a week, the inside of my cheeks are smooth!! I literally cannot remember it ever being this way, as I've been peeling layers of my mouth since I was a kid. I'd peel parts that felt uneven and it was painful sometimes. So now I'm able to replace cheek chewing with playing with my tongue, and I'm so thankful for this unexpected bonus. 

I plan on updating this here and there as time goes on! Super happy to be part of the snake army. Thanks for reading it all the way through if you made it this far! 

These are only 3 days after suture removal.