Calvin's surgery is scheduled

Our sweet boy on his 3rd bday

Emerald and Avery playing dress up

Carson and Aubrey were playing dress up, too.

Zachary loves his little table and spends an extended amount of time standing at it these days--we are pretty excited about that!

Went to the plastic surgeon today. We are having his dermoid cyst removed next Friday. It was reassuring to hear them say that this is very common (they see maybe 2 or 3 a week) and is a minor procedure. They said these fatty cysts are actually created before birth and continue to grow. It obviously has been growing larger over the last year and especially the last few months. It almost always happens near the brow line. It will be a brief, 30 minute or so procedure. However, with prep, working with the anesthesiologist, an IV, helping to secure his airway, post op/recovery, waiting to make sure the bleeding has stopped, he can eat/drink w/o vomiting (we could have issues here with Cal), it could be a 5 hour deal. The bleeding should be minimal. There will be a small scar. They plan to send it off to pathology to confirm that it isn't anything to worry about. They said he will have some bruising, a day or pain, but not too terrible, some swelling, but really he should be up and running within a few days.

The "bad" part of the talk. She said that very, very RARELY it could possibly be attached and have grown under his cranium, but this happens maybe once or twice in a doctor's lifetime. If this were the case, they'd have to stop the procedure and we'd have to move on to a neurosurgeon. They could do a CT scan to see if this is the case, but because of the rarity, the risks of the CT outweigh the chances of this happening. So, no CT for him, which is fine with me.

There really didn't seem to be an option of not removing it. She said that it would continue to grow, which isn't good. It would pull at his eyelid (lit it already has started to do) and affect vision. It could also possibly cause some nasty infection internally. Not that I had a reason I didn't want it removed, but there are some reasons for taking this cyst out. Another negative thing could be a recurrence of this cyst in the future. It could also have some possible infection if not fully removed. She assured us that all this was rare, and pretty much wouldn't happen, but obviously needed to go over all the risks before surgery.

So, we will pray that all goes well and that healing and recovery goes smoothly for out little man. I picture my sweet Calvinator being scared and sad as they take him away from us. Now I see why this isn't as bad to do with younger infants, as the attachment and understanding isn't there. Hopefully he won't be too scared, and mommy won't cry before he leaves the room.