Kaarin's California Adventure

You can see the bit of red just above her dress....

Kaarin has had a little lump on her chest ever since she was born. Her Dr. said that it was a branchial cleft cyst, basically just a piece that didn't close properly while she was developing in the womb. He said it wasn't a big deal unless it got infected. For nearly 4 years it has stayed exactly the same...until the day after we left for California. Of course. The change was small at first, just turning red & 'growing' slightly. 

Red, slightly bigger...

It continued to do this all the way to California. Being a non-medical person (& also frugal) I turned to my facebook friends for advice. ;) Most of them erred on the side of caution, telling me to take her to the Dr., that it might be infected. It wasn't that I disagreed with them, it was just that she was FINE otherwise - no fever, not acting sick, etc. She only complained if someone touched her bump. Finally, after a week of it getting worse, I decided to take her to the Dr. Fortunately a friend of mine lives in Rancho Mirage & gave me the name of her pediatrician so I was able to take her there rather than to urgent care. I was partly being proactive, since we were leaving for Disneyland in a couple of days & I didn't want to end up in the ER while there, since we had limited time...so, anyway, we went to see the Dr. on 4/8, & of course since he hadn't seen it in its original state & I couldn't remember the name of it (& when I called the office here the nurses couldn't find a record of it in her file...) he diagnosed her with a lypoma, a sort of fatty tumor, that was infected. He put her on an antibiotic & told us to visit a dermatologist when we got home to have it removed. Being the good mom that I am, I facebooked my friend whose husband is a dermatologist & asked if that sounded appropriate -- mostly because I wanted to be sure I was making the appt. with the appropriate Dr. So, he looked at the picture & thought it was more of a cyst, which would require an Ear-Nose-Throat Dr. Hmmmm. Well, fortunately for me, my ENT is married to a pediatrician...but hold on. We're getting ahead here.

Took her to the Dr. when it looked like this...

So -- the kids & I packed up on 4/10, antibiotic in hand, to pick Erik up at LAX & head to the Happiest Place on Earth (perhaps a misnomer, according to my kids' behavior at times....). We had fun at Disney (see other post), headed back to the desert (also in other post) on 4/13, & by the time we got back, the lypoma/cyst was...W.O.R.S.E. So much for being proactive...So, of course it is now the weekend (all medical emergencies seem to happen then, or after-hours, right?). Back to my ENT who is married to a pediatrician...they also seem to be our children's bed supplier (I'll post about that another time), so I happen to have her cell phone #. Very apologetically, I send her a text of the lypoma/cyst to show her husband, the ENT, again to be sure I'm making the appropriate appt. She (bless her) texts me back (this is now Sunday, 4/14) & tells me to go to the ER because it now appears infected. Ah. Sweet. So much for frugality, as the ER is anything but. 

To the ER when it looked like this (after Disneyland)

So, off we went, to the ER. After we were seen by the nurse & Dr., we were told that WHATEVER she had was now an abscess that needed to be drained. They really didn't want to sedate her, so they put some numbing cream on it. 

At the ER, waiting our turn

About 4 hrs. later, the Dr. finally came in to drain it. I'll spare you the gory details, but first he poked it with a needle, then he cut it with a scalpel (I know, to some of you, those are the gory details!). Kaarin was SO BRAVE through it all, even though she cried & screamed...she held still enough for the Dr. to be able to do his work. Afterward, she was rewarded with a popsicle & a nap. ;) We were finally discharged (after 5.5 hrs.) with instructions to visit the pediatrician in 2 days. They were also testing the fluid that they removed for MRSA, so we would need to wait for an update as they would need to change her antibiotic (they put her on an additional one at the ER). 

Recovery after the procedure at the ER

We went back to the pediatrician on 4/16, & he said he would call with an update on the MRSA result. We left town on 4/17 to head home, got a message from the pediatrician that it was NOT MRSA (yay) & to follow up with our own pediatrician when we got home. So, back to the Dr. we went on 4/25. He  had to squeeze our some pus (boo) that had re-formed in the opening, which hurt Kaarin a lot. 

Still not looking great...

He was encouraged that there was blood underneath because that meant the infection had not gotten too deep again.

He referred us to a surgeon to have the cyst removed. We visited with the surgeon in May, then followed up again in June after it had time to heal a bit more. The surgeon said that it is very possible that the cyst (he said we may never ACTUALLY know for sure what it was, since it has now changed...) obliterated itself by abscessing, so it is possible that the whole thing will go away as it heals! He recommended waiting on surgery, the worst-case scenario is that it would abscess again & we would just start this process over, with surgery being the end result at that time.

Not quite the adventure we planned to have in California!!

After the draining & squeezing...getting better!