At about 4 months old I noticed a small bump on Andies left eyebrow. Her Pediatrician told us it was a cyst that might go away on its own and not to worry about it unless it changed. By her 8 month old check-up it was slowly growing and he decided it was time for a specialist to look at it.
We were referred to a pediatric plastic surgeon (Louis Morales) who told us it was a Dermoid Cyst that would only get bigger and bigger until we took it out. So at this point surgery was scheduled. We decided to move the surgery from October of 2010 to January of 2011 so the payments from Andies surgery and my "C-Section" would both fall during the same year and apply to the same set of deductibles.
On January 27th we got up super early and headed to Primary Children's Hospital. My awesome Mom spent the night at our house so she could be there to get Toby and Sadie up and to school.
As soon as it was time to get into a hospital gown and do all the pre-surgery check of vitals Andie panicked. She hollered and cried and clung to Dan and me begging to leave. She politely blew kisses to the nurses and told them bye-bye. Then would beg us "peas" to get her outta there. It certainly didn't do much to settle the nerves of anxious parents.
(Or other patients checking in for that matter.)
Above is her cyst just before surgery.
In our third set of waiting rooms An older gentleman from the lab came to see if we were willing to let Andie be part of a scientific study they were conducting. He was kind and spoke softly, and Andie LOVES anyone that looks like a Grandpa right now so it actually helped calm her quite a bit.
We agreed to be part of the study. They are trying to learn more about thyroid, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in children. It involved drawing blood from her already placed IV during surgery.
After observing Andies level of anxiety we were offered Versed to calm her before having to hand her off. Once that kicked in she was calmed significantly. (And super loopy.)
The surgeon then anesthesiologist came to talk to us next. Right on schedule at 7:30 am we followed the anesthesiologist (a Mom with an Andi (Andrea) of her own) down the hall. She then asked us to hand over Andie, who only fussed a little at that point. We checked in at the waiting room and were told we could go grab breakfast and that we had about an hour wait before the Dr. would come talk with us.
After a quick bite to eat from the cafe. I called Mom to give her an update, and Dan came and interrupted saying the doctor was on his way to talk to us.
This made me nervous at first cause it had only been about 35 mins.
It was all good news! The surgery was done. He commented on how big the cyst was. He said it had grown a lot, wrapped around the muscle and was down to the bone. Ewww.
He was able to get it all in one piece and felt really good about the appearance of it.
Tests are being done to ensure there is nothing else to worry about, and we should hear in about 10 days what the results were.
Shortly after, a nurse came and said ONE parent of Andie Jensen could come see her.
After a few glances at each-other, we agreed that it was ME.
I was led to a post-op area where Andie was already awake in a nurses arms and was obviously very upset. It took her a minute to realize I was there. I took and held her and gave her the rest of a bottle. When it emptied she really started hollering. She was begging "peas" for more juice. When they wouldn't let her have more she was really upset and doing everything she could to pull off medical equipment. I felt bad for those around us trying to come out of surgery.
They decided to move us to recovery where Dan could be with us as well, and where she could have a popsicle. That helped a lot until the popsicle was gone.
After a half hour of doing everything we could to calm her, they gave up on the blood pressure cuff and started un-hooking and discharging her.
While waiting for Rx's to be filled she REALLY just wanted out of there. She flopped all over to be put down, then would try to crawl off.
We should have filmed her pathetic tipsy escape attempts.
She was SOOO happy to be back in her own jammies and back at her own house.
Day two she has a good shiner and can't open her eye very well, but woke up saying
"happy, happy, happya".
Her stitches are covered with a clear film and will desolve on their own.
Aside from trying to rub off the stitches, she is mostly unfazed and is our happy little girl again.
Sooooo happy that one is over. Whew!
We are very blessed indeed!
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