Wednesday, January 16, 2013

I'm back!

I promise I have not forgotten about the blog! In my effort to stay off social media I sort of just lumped the internet in general in there and neglected the blog for a while. Then as I was making my way back into the etherverse my New Year got really interesting.

On New Years day I got a call from my mom to say that Braedan was having some unusual swelling of his testicles. They were going to wait until my aunt, who is an RN, could look at it the next day but to be prepared because she might be taking him to the ER. At this point they were still in California and I was sitting at home in Colorado 1000 miles away from my baby who needed his momma! I stressed for a whole day before hearing from my aunt that she thought he might have a hernia and to get him checked out by the doctor as soon as they returned home. A hernia? How in the world does a 4 year old get a hernia!?

We saw his pediatrician the Monday after he got back from vacation and she couldn't say whether or not he had a hernia for sure, but that he definitely had a hole in his abdominal lining that was causing fluid to build up in his scrotum. Both circumstances involve a hole in the abdominal lining but a hernia means that intestines are pushing through the hole, where the other problem called a hydrocele is just fluid. We were referred to a pediatric surgeon for further analysis. Oh boy...here we go...

We saw the surgeon a week later and he confirmed that Bam does in fact have a hernia, and it needs to be repaired sooner rather than later to avoid the hole getting bigger and/or developing a problem. So, how does a 4 year old get a hernia? Well apparently it's fairly common. About 2-5% of boys will have this type of problem. For most children the problem fixes itself by 12 months, but for others it sticks around and requires surgical intervention. We're in the latter group. Oh joy! So my poor precious baby boy is scheduled for surgery next week.

Although I am glad that we caught the problem before it was really a problem (he's not in any pain now), I really hate putting him under. Braedan has only been put under once and that was to get tubes put in his ears at age 2. Ironically, it has been almost exactly 2 years since he had his first surgery. He was so disoriented when he came out of anesthesia that he was crying for his mommy and I was sitting right next to him telling him I was right there! He just didn't comprehend. That was the hardest part. I also had to go it alone as both my mom and Rich had to work that day. Luckily for me, Rich works evenings now and my mom is taking the day off to be here. So, I will get to have my awesome support rocks to keep me sane.

My resolution this year was to focus on the positive. I can not be more glad that my son has been amazingly healthy since birth. It's a blessing that this is our biggest problem.

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