My new baby boy is absolutely perfect.
Except he’s not.
When David arrived on the scene, he surprised us all by having an odd “birthmark” at the base of his spine. It looks like a skin tag or mole over a lump in his skin. In the operating room, the doctors and nurses took some extra time to check the mark out to make sure it wasn’t open to the spine or anything immediately dangerous.
Our pediatrician was concerned about the area, in part because he couldn’t classify it. It could have been a harmless birthmark or something more serious. And so David was scheduled to have an ultrasound on his back at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital as soon as we were discharged from the hospital. We didn’t even get to go home first.
The ultrasound gave us a few answers. The area isn’t a simple birthmark, as we had hoped, but it isn’t anything immediately threatening. It’s a small tag of fatty tissue on top of a bundle of extra nerves that are connected to the spine. So while we’re thankful it’s nothing terribly serious, it’s also not something that can be ignored.
At first our pediatrician scheduled us to have an MRI two days later to give us more information, and he warned us that surgery might be necessary in the next couple of weeks. Apparently there is concern that the nerves could pull on David’s spinal cord and cause problems.
However, when the pediatric neurologist saw David’s scans, he decided that he would like to do a consultation with us first before any scans or talk of surgery. We are scheduled to meet with the neurologist in early February, so apparently things look good enough for us to wait a few weeks.
I am very thankful to have a month at home with my family, without worrying about surgery or other plans. I am deliberately not googling what we do know about David’s back, because I’d rather have answers from professionals than get worried about speculations on the internet.
If I think about it, I am terrified at the prospect of David having surgery. So for today, I’m not thinking about it. Today, I’m focusing on my gratitude that David is healthy in every other way. He truly is so amazing. He is my little boy.
Definitely keeping you in my thoughts!
Hmmm. It seems this David character is determined to cause all kinds of trouble. I like him already. 🙂
I definitely support your google ban and encourage you to keep it up! Several doctors told us that if you HAVE to read somewhere, go to webmd because their articles are at least reviewed by a doctor…but stay away from everything else. (Of course I still research like crazy looking for ways to get her to eat and such, but I didn’t research any of the scary stuff.)
I hate that you’ve hit another bump in the road (or back or whatever you want to call it). We’ll be thinking about you and are here to help! We have, um, learned our way around the children’s hospital and surgeries and specialists, you could say. 🙂
Love you – all 4!