I mentioned surgery, didn't I?
Spoiler alert: it turned out to be a very easy quick surgery with quick recovery!
Remember that February morning when my sweet little man graced us with his presence, after 52 hours of labor? Well he had this odd little bump on the bridge of his nose, hence the nick name Little man. Side note, that plus his hairline made him look like a little old man. We assumed it was a side affect from birth, but it didn't go away. His pediatrician said to watch it and not to worry.
Then it grew.
We were referred to an ENT who side it needed to be looked at by a specialist at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. What we thought was a little bump/cyst, could have possibly been part of his brain that was trapped outside his nose when his nose formed. The doctor said this very calmly and that left me confused on how to feel, do I remain calm or freak out? I wavered between the two for weeks.
Then we saw the specialist.
He took one look at it and assured me it was not Isaac’s brain, it was simply a Dermoid Cyst. Oh what a relief! Then the specialist went on to explain that it would need to be removed and Isaac would need a MRI to determine if the cyst extended into brain and therefore required a neurosurgeon…Didn't he just tell me is was a simple cyst?!
So home we went to wait for surgery.
After almost three months, we headed back to Little Rock for the surgery. I am a huge control freak and an obsessive planner/packer, so that fact that there were so many unknowns stressed me out. Everything depended on what the MRI said. Would there be a neurosurgeon? Would we have to stay over night? Would we have to stay multiple nights? Then there was the mommy worry of how he would handle the hotel and the MRI and the surgery and the pain and the hospital and not getting to nurse for hours? FYI He was great… I not so much.
Monday was the MRI. They told me I had to stop nursing him at 2:45am and he didn't go under till almost 8:30am. I repeatedly asked them when he would be put under since they gave me a much earlier cut off than the surgery people, and I stressed them he nurses every 1.5-2 hours, they assured me he would be put under at 6:45am, even though the “appointment” was for 8:45am… Thankfully he is such a sweet little guy and is so excited for new things that he was distracted most of the time.
However I want to take a moment to rant, there is part of me that gets super annoyed when I think about that situation. I did my homework and the cut off time for breastmilk is closer to the time the child goes under than the time for formula. Formula takes longer to digest so must be stopped sooner to ensure its out of their system, similar to adults and solid food. Breastmilk digests faster which is also why breastfed babies eat ALL THE TIME. Now the surgery nurses understood this so they are excluded from this rant. The nurses staffing the MRI were not as understanding. They ask you the same questions over and over, and every nurse asked what formula he was on and then looked confused when I said he was exclusively breastfed. They seemed peeved that I kept asking when he would be taken back because he hadn't eaten in so long and I was worried he'd get too hungry or worse get low blood sugar. If they can ask the same questions over and over, why can’t I? Then you add in the fact that Mama is getting uncomfortable, and ask to nurse him as soon as he wakes up, and that gets a “look,” this Mama gets a bit grumpy. I don’t mean to sound rude, but breastfeeding a baby isn't as easy as it looks and having someone attached to you 24/7 is hard, so when medical personal aren't understanding it kinda grates on your nerves. And lets be real, watching your five month old be hooked up to tubes and put to sleep is terrifying! Don’t worry, it all worked out and both Little Man and I were so happy when it was all over!
Thankfully the MRI showed that the cyst was just in the nose and it would be a quick simple surgery. The doctor would go in and remove the cyst and “squish” the bones of his nose back together. Yes, he said “squish.” The nice thing about babies is they are so new you can squish things together and they fix themselves.
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| Last picture with the cyst! |
The surgery was scheduled for the next day and was much less nerve wrecking than the MRI. It helped that now we knew he didn't react badly to the sedation and that the cyst was simple. It was also much quicker than we thought it would be. Vince had wandered off thinking it would be about another hour and poof the doctor appeared to say he was in recovery! Isaac actually got discharged from the recovery room instead of the discharge room because he woke up so quickly and was ready to go. He was very upset that he was tethered to the IV still, its hard to play when you can’t move much.
I wish I recovered from surgery as fast as he did. He took a nice long nap when he got back to the hotel and then played and played and played. All they gave him for pain was tylenol and by the next day he didn't even act like he needed it and by day 3 we stopped giving it to him. By his two week check up the bone was completely healed and the incision was mostly healed. We had some problems with the dissolvable stitches not dissolving, a month and a half later his pediatrician told us to pull it out with tweezers and even now 3 months later I can feel one still under the skin, but other than that it was a super fast recovery.
I am so thankful Isaac has such a sweet temperament it helped ease my stress. I’m not really sure how he got such a sweet temperament, his dad has one, but I was a terrible child so my terribleness should have canceled out Vince’s sweetness. I sit here and wonder about it sometimes, but then I quickly tell myself to just be happy and go with it, what crazy person questions why their child is sweet? Normal people just praise God for that!
So I sit here and praise God that I have such a sweet little man and that he is healthy and happy and that I am so blessed to be his mama.
