This Friday, James and I had an appointment up at the children's hospital to have a second opinion on Lorelle's cheek. I had requested to see a plastic surgeon who specialized in children with face abnormalities. When we had gotten there, we found that he wanted to bring in a few more doctors as well. So we saw a pediatrician, the plastic surgeon and then a radiologist. What we learned is that Lorelle's cheek is actually a form of birthmark called Lymphatic Malformation. It is a cyst type of birthmark that is actually very common, more than you'd think. Babies are born with extra lymphnodes in their bodies and they don't know why and some babies collect fluid in them which is what Lorelle has. They never go away on their own, which is what we were told when she was born, but actually grow with your child. So if nothing is done, the cyst will always be in the same proportion to her face as it is now. So the bigger she gets, the bigger it gets.
So there are 2 things they can do for her. One is a procedure called sclerotheropy which is they take a needle and drain the cysts and then fill them again with an agent that burns the inside of the cyst and then "glues" it shut so it doesn't refill. Then obviously the second option is surgery which would be also the last resort. It can be done and it's not hard, he said, just tedious since they would have to work around nerves and be careful but he's done it before and it's no problem. But the radiologist is able to do the procedure on her so that she doesn't have to have surgery. He said that it's just a day procedure and won't take very long but since she is so little, they will probably keep her 24 hours just in case. They will only do the big cysts since those are the ones you see. He said he'd only have to do it once probably and that we would see a huge difference in her after the first procedure. He will only have to poke her with the needle about 7-8 times and she should be done. They are leaving the little ones since they are so deep in her body, you can't even see them and they aren't harming anything. If they get bigger then all we do is take her in again and he does the procedure again. She might have to have a few of these procedures done throughout her life. He also said that he's seen and done this procedure before and that it is actually quite simple. So she has an appointment April 15th to get it done.
I am so grateful that we got a second opinion. Can you imagine if I just took that stupid surgeon's word for it..."they might do something for her when she's 5". Whatever!!! It makes me so mad just thinking about it. That surgeon did nothing for us and the doctors at the children's hospital were so awesome and took their time to find the best thing to do for her. Never once did they say it wasn't possible. They knew exactly what she had before we had gotten there just by looking at her MRI and ultrasound and the letter from my doc and that stupid surgeon's report and they put the pieces in place to make sure that's exactly whats going on with her and do the best for her. And they didn't just sluff it off cuz it wasn't harming anything and were like "oh yeah, it's easy. We can do this, it won't take long and she'll be fine and look great" Every time I think about that surgeon in Lethbridge, I get a little annoyed...if you couldn't tell. I'm so excited for her and excited to see what she looks like after it's gone. She'll be a whole new baby!!!!
Thanks to Jana who watched Jared and Mady for me. We were in a huge pinch since the hospital called on Wednesday and the only appointment available was Friday morning. Jana was my last resort since she lives up in Rocky Mountain House (2 hours north of Calgary) and she has like 8 day home kids that day plus 2 of her own. But alas, I had to use her. So Jana drove down and met us in Calgary and we went to the Olive Garden for supper (yummy!!!) and she took Jared and Mady home while we stayed the night in Calgary and went to our appointment then after we drove up there to get our kids and decided to stay the weekend in the caios. Then we got snowed in on Sunday so we got to hang out another day and it was fun...really. I owe her big since her basement is flooded so she doesn't have one, had 10 kids at her house and was still willing to take my 2. What a great sister...but I would have done the same for her cuz that's what family is for, right?? Thanks J!!!!
