Hannah's neck

So, I haven't mentioned this before because I haven't, until now, had ton of conclusive information about it and I didn't want to sit and speculate. A few months ago, I noticed that Hannah had a rather large lump on the right side of her neck. Since she is so chubby and her neck is no exception to the chubbiness, I never noticed it until one day when she threw her head pretty far back to look up at something and the skin on her neck was tightened and you could clearly see a lump. I, of course, freaked out (silently) and immediately called her pediatrician who after checking her out, referred her to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist.

The ENT had a terrible time trying to get Hannah to just hold still so she could look in her ear and inspect the lump. Hannah would have nothing to do with her and fought and fought (it probably didn't help that her appt time was the same time as her nap time). The ENT concluded that it was most likely a bronchial cleft cyst, but wanted to do an ultrasound to confirm. We did the ultrasound a week later and it did not show any signs of fluid (translation: not a cyst) and looked more like a solid mass. After meeting with the ENT again, we decided that a biopsy was the next option to determining what it was.

Well, since Hannah wouldn't even sit still for an exam--there was no way she would sit through a needle being put into her neck, so we had to put her under general anesthesia. That would also give our ENT a chance to do a thorough ear exam since she hadn't been able to do one yet.

This morning we went to Good Samaritan Hospital (outpatient surgery center) to have her biopsy. We had to be there at 6:30am(!), so it's been a long day. Everyone there was so nice and all the nurses doted on her and catered her every whim. It was really sweet. The anesthesiologist came in and talked to me at length about what they were going to do and how long recovery would take. We seriously has way better treatment for this minor surgery than we did at CHLA for Sammy's surgery. The anesthesiologist at CHLA spent about 45 seconds with me regarding Sammy and the recovery nurses at CHLA were TERRIBLE. I didn't mention this about his surgery, but they didn't get Samuel and I in to see to Sammy until AFTER he had woken up from the anesthesia and he was literally SCREAMING in pain and fright. They didn't get us for 20 minutes after he awoke. I was furious! So, after that experience I made sure that I was there before Hannah woke up from this. She did really well considering her day. There was some crying, but it was quite controlled and not from pain--nothing like the awful cries from Sammy. I will never forget that sound--it was one of the worst days of my life, seeing your child suffer like that and not be able to do anything and knowing that he was all alone for at least 20 minutes.

The doctor told me that the substance they removed from the biopsy looks fairly consistent with that from a cyst (surprisingly enough) and they would know more after the lab analyzed it. She is quite confident that it's not a tumor or other growth (yay!). She also mentioned that Hannah's right ear canal isn't formed properly and that there is an unusual boney (is that a word?) structure blocking half her ear drum. She said that she has never seen this and actually called her colleague down to the OR to take a look as well. She said it is not causing Hannah any pain or other problem, but suggested we take Hannah to CHLA at some point to do a hearing test in that ear to see if she has any hearing problems because of it. I'm not too concerned about that since she speaks so well (and has since 11 months--seriously, full sentences at 17 months!). She also suggested getting a CAT scan sometime as well to really see the entire ear structure in more detail, but obviously when Hannah is older and can hold still.

Anyway, we went home at 9:00 am and Hannah has been doing great. We went to Kidspace for the morning and everyone's favorite El Pollo Loco for burritos and quesadillas for lunch, then home for a much needed Mommy nap. (I've become quite the insomniac lately and was awake from 1:30am-5:30am when I finally got up to get ready for the day). We had a nice nap and I finished Breaking Dawn (#4 in the Twilight series) while the kids played. All in all, a much better day than I thought it would be.