The best doctor in Belgrade!

In Parga, we FaceTime’d our friend at home who is an oral surgeon and he helped us with my tongue. He told us that we needed to get it taken care of by having it removed by an oral surgeon. My parents found one in Belgrade and were able to make an appointment for the day after we got there.

When we arrived in Serbia, we were very excited because the next day (Friday) was the day we would get my bump removed. We met my doctor on Friday. He was really nice and his name is Professor Doctor Zoran Stajcic. We all decided that day that it would be better to do it on Saturday at the hospital which meant I would need to have general anesthesia (that means they have to put me to sleep; local anesthesia would’ve been with me being awake). When we did it the next day, we needed to stay at the hospital for about eight hours. Some of that time was doing nothing except for playing games. It hurt really bad when they drew blood and put the port in. When they put it in it felt like I had five fire ants on my arm biting me (if you can choose local, I recommend that because getting the port put in hurt so bad). After the port was in, I played games on my dad’s iPhone and on my iPad for a while to be distracted.

After getting the port put in, surprisingly I was done with the hardest part because when they put the medicine in my veins, I fell asleep for the whole time. The last thing I remember before the anesthesia was that a nurse beside me was telling me two times about one of the nurses, “He is crazy but we like him!”

When I woke up, I thought I still had the bump because the stitches made my tongue super fat and I thought the stitches were the bump. I was very tired and confused and my mom told me that my bump was gone and I was very excited. It was hard to speak because my tongue was so swollen and fat. It looked like they gave me tongue implants. After my surgery we had to stay at the hospital for a few more hours so they could keep watch on me which kind of sounds like they were spying on me but it was just so they could make sure I was safe. During that time, they took the tape off of my arm and took out the port. It hurt a lot, mostly when the tape was coming off but it was really scary to see the needle coming out of my vein. There was a lot of blood after I was done with the cotton.

My dad stayed with me at the hospital but the rest of my family and Mr Cox left a couple hours before we did so they could get dinner. A while later the hospital staff let us go. The hospital staff was really nice. They checked on me often and asked me if I would like a glass of apple juice and I said yes please.

I really liked my doctor. His name is Professor Doctor Zoran Stajcic. I met him on Friday when we were in his office and he was really nice and happy. He was very comforting when I was nervous. He said that the needle in my tongue would be a little poke. At my surgery on Saturday I didn’t see him because I was asleep when he was there. We got to see him again on Monday to check on my tongue and he answered our questions about what I could eat and how many days it would take for my stitches to dissolve. We gave him a thank you card and a bottle of wine and he gave me lots of hugs and a photo of a medieval painting and on the back it had a prayer for travelers that said “enable me to get home safely”. I am really glad my tongue is better. I did not like having my bump there at all!