Joey said it today and he was right, Hannah has had more procedures done in the five and a half years she has been alive than he has in the thirty six years he has been alive. We went doctor hopping today, (kinda like bar hopping, only different). We went to the orthopedic surgeon and the pediatric urologist.
The urologist put her on a light antibiotic to take once a day as a proactive measure because she is having too many urinary tract infections and he wants to make sure her bladder has calmed down so when he sees her in 6 weeks he knows whether or not to start testing to see if her surgery that she had at 16 months old is still in tact or if she is just prone to infections. Right now he believes it is the last of the two theories. So, keep your fingers crossed. So that visit wasn't necessarily so bad.
The orthopedic surgeon's visit is the one that bites! Hannah was diagnosed with a tumor on her left leg called an osteochondroma. It is a mass of bone that has "spilled out" of the growth plate and continues to grow as Hannah grows. She was diagnosed with this at 4 years old. It is not cancer, nothing like that, but it can cause discomfort and can eventually cause nerve damage if we do not watch it carefully. When we went to the pediatrician for the last UTI (go figure) the doctor said she did not like the fact that this knot had gotten so much bigger and had changed shape so drastically in such a short amount of time (They check every time she comes in the office pretty much). Dr. Hubbard was afraid the tumor would cause a stress fracture to the tibia because of the location of the two and the fact that Hannah is continually bumping it, falling on it, so on and so on. Therefore, she told us to go see Dr. Sawyer the ortho guy.
Anyway, we saw him today. He told me that she probably would not fracture the bone by falling on the tumor, but that it could possibly begin to affect the nerve that flexes/points her foot and that we should consider having the tumor removed. Dr. Sawyer said it was a matter of time before it was going to need to be taken off anyway and the younger she was the quicker she would bounce back. My poor baby would have yet another surgery. She would have the procedure done in a surgery center, same day type thing, and the doctor said she could walk on it by that afternoon probably with a walker, just for pain management, not due to impairment. She would only need it for the first day or two at the most, if at all. He will go in and cut the tumor off the bone, working around the nerve and stitch her from the inside out, it would take about an hour plus/minus a few minutes to complete. Dr. Sawyer said the biggest thing is working around the nerve, but that he's not ever had a problem and with the placement of Hannah's tumor, he didn't foresee one. If we choose to do this, we will probably do it during our fall break, so he said if he did it that Monday that she could go back to school the following Monday with restricted activity.
Just say a little prayer for all of us.
3 comments:
well my goodness! poor thing. did the doctors recommend taking hannah off of caffeine to help with the UT infections? i get them all the time if i drink too much caffeine. it's crappy b/c even tea, which i love, has caffeine in it.
she doesn't have any caffine really. we use decaf tea and she drinks sprite, same at Gaga's, which are really the only two places she goes and she milk at camp. She is just prone to them because of the kidney reflux and heredity (sp). She's lucky I guess, no caffine, no bubble baths, no fun stuff huh :)? If it keeps her healthy I don't care!
Man Heather, I hate to hear this about you little girl, I will be praying for her (and y'all too). In a situation like this, I know we'd be glad to take their place, but GOD will keep a special hand on her during all of this!
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