Ready to Close This Chapter

David and I left for a weekend away to San Diego on Thursday evening, but before we left, I took Sydney in for another ultrasound on her arm.  After our last consultation with the pediatric surgeon, we decided we needed to have some concrete data to see if the bump was getting smaller.  We got a call on Friday from the doctor letting us know that the bump wasn't getting smaller and was, in fact, getting larger.  It had gone from about 3cm x 2cm to 3.2cm x 3 cm in just a matter of a couple months.  And, they still didn't know what it was exactly.  So, the logical next step was to take it out.  

She scheduled the surgery for today, which was actually nice to only have a couple of days to worry over it.  We went in around 9:30 to sign a little bit of paperwork and then waited and waited and waited until about 11:30 when they took her back.  Thankfully, our little area had some fun play toys to keep my hungry/tired baby occupied.

She was not happy to go back with the nurse and resident.  She cried and I cried.  It wasn't a pretty sight.  Thankfully, the surgery went really quickly.  By the time we got something to eat and got back to the waiting room, the surgeon was out telling us how it went.

Sydney did great and she was able to get pretty much the entire mass.  She sent it off to pathology, but it was basically an intermingling of blood vessels and fatty tissue cradled right on top of her bicep muscle.  They put some stitches in her arm as well as a layer of super glue + a paper strip on top and sent her into recovery.  

Bless her heart, when we went in there she was so out of it.  Mother's guilt immediately kicked in because I am no longer nursing her and couldn't comfort her.  She wiggled and squirmed and cried on and off until we got to the car where she fell asleep.  I was able to keep her asleep and napped with her for about an hour and a half once we got home.  She woke up in a great mood and after some food she was her usual self.

They say tomorrow morning may be tough as the numbing agent will have worn off and her arm will be more sore.  There's already a little bit of bruising going on and we'll need to keep a close eye on it for the next couple of weeks, but I don't expect this to hold her back at all.  I will be so glad once she is all healed up.

We are so grateful for all of the positive thoughts and prayers sent our way!  Thank you, friends!

And, I have to add this:  Olivia wanted to know what was in "The Bump" and I really didn't know how to explain it to her.  She kept asking over and over and so I finally said, "It was blood vessels and fatty tissue."  She sat for a few seconds and said, "But a tissue is what you blow your nose with."  Yup, it is.  And, it doesn't belong in Sydney's arm!  So, good riddance.

Sydneygrams: The MRI edition

I will be glad when this week is over.  And, by week, I mean all of the unpleasant hospital visits / doctor's appointments / baby fever business is over with.  Hoping that is tomorrow.  Or tonight, for that matter.

Sydney's original MRI was Wednesday morning at 8.  I was worked up for a number of reasons, the biggest being the fact that she would have to go under a general anesthesia for the scans.  That is scary stuff for this mama who worries over each little bump, bruise and scratch.  In addition to that, Sydney does not generally sleep through the night, and relies on the Mommy Pacifiers to get her back to sleep.  {As sleep deprived as I am, they are only young once and I cannot stand to hear her cry unnecessarily for any length of time.}  I was going to have to cut her off of those at 3am, so I was worried we might have a nightmarish early morning.  Fortunately, I was able to nurse her and have her back down by 2, but she was up at 5 and could not go back to sleep.  Thank you, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, for keeping her mind off of her hungry belly.

We got to the hospital around 7 and fortunately she had slept some in the car and was very happy and relaxed in my Ergo {which is more than I can say for myself}.  They did the work-up and I think I teared up through most of it.  The nurse and anesthesiologist were both very nice, but I couldn't help but bawl my eyes out once they took her back.  The procedure lasted a little over an hour and it was just the saddest thing to see her coming off of the anesthesia.  She took right to nursing {duh, she sleep nurses a lot} and eventually came back to her normal happy self.  We were so relieved to have that over with.  The nurse told us that no news was good news and we would hear something from our doctor in 24-48 hours.

When Thursday morning rolled around, I was feeling pretty confident that it was the hemangioma that the doctors had originally thought - there were no calls for more tests, blood work, or emergency surgery, so I felt more relaxed.

Around 5:15 Thursday evening, I got a phone call from an administrator at the hospital who said she was conferencing in with the doctor from radiology.  Oh my word, I can't tell you how quickly my heart began to beat.  It's amazing what my mind could race to in a matter of 15 seconds before she told me the reason for the phone call -- at Wednesday's MRI, they imaged the wrong arm.  It is unbelievable to me that something like that could happen as I stressed to the anesthesiologist, the nurse and the tech which arm it was.  They felt the mass and everything.  But, it happened, and the MRI needed to be done again.  You can't imagine how upset I was.  I think there were at least four different people on the phone with me - all apologizing and promising to make it right.  My only thought was that she was going to have to undergo anesthesia again.  I called my doctor to make sure that he was okay with her having this done two times in 48 hours.  He was just as upset with the hospital, but assured me it was completely fine for her to be put under again.

My dad and I took Sydney up Friday morning {as David had work things to do and couldn't get them all done the night before}.  It was pretty much the same routine as Wednesday except completely different people and a lot of apologies.  They promised us the results before we left the hospital, which was going to be nice so that we wouldn't have to wait over the weekend.

Sydney again did great under the anesthesia, but she was a lot more disoriented this time coming out of it.  But, within 10-15 minutes of nursing she was smiling and clapping {although she was very annoyed with the IV left in her arm in case the doctors wanted blood work done after seeing the scans}.  One of the administrators came in and brought Sydney a Gund teddy bear as her way of apologizing.  Definitely an upgrade from the snail Beanie Baby she got on Wednesday.

The waiting for the results was hard - it seemed to take longer than the imaging itself.  The nurse came back to let us know that the radiologist and Sydney's pediatrician had talked and wanted Sydney to have an X-ray of her arm to further prove it was a hemangioma and to rule out some other possibilities.

We took her up to X-ray and that was the only time she really cried - she didn't want to lay still on the table.  Totally reminded me of how difficult it has become to change her diaper!  Once we got the X-ray done we were free to go.

I heard from our doctor a few hours later and he let me know that they still can't be 100% sure that it is a hemangioma.  He said there must be something in the scans that is a little different from a typical hemangioma.  The good news is that the tumor {I hate that word, but that's what it is} is benign and is completely contained.  Our next step is to meet with a pediatric surgeon to see if we wait and watch it and ultrasound it again in 3-6 months to see if it is getting smaller or to remove it.  If it is a hemangioma, it should begin to get smaller because they typically peak in size around 9 months.

Throughout all of this, we realize how blessed we are to have two very healthy girls.  There are so many things that could potentially go wrong and we are so very grateful for good health.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers and good thoughts that you have sent our way over the last couple of weeks.

Now, if I can get this fever that Sydney has had for the last 18 hours or so to completely go away, I will be one happy mama!