Lumpy Loo

I have to start this post off with a title like that just to take the edge off and make it seem less scary :)

That being said, this is a story in a post, so if you know the story, feel free to skip this post all together, or at least to the end where there might be new information.

One day towards the end of October, while putting lotion on Paytin after her bath, I noticed a small purple-ish mark on the right side of her chest, right above her nipple area. It wasn't purple like on her skin, but blue/purple like a vein under her skin or something. I touched it gently and noticed it was a small lump. It didn't hurt her when I touched it, and she seemed unphased, so I thought it was just a hormonal thing that would clear up in a few days. About a week later, I was still noticing it there and decided we had better take her in for it. A week or so after that, I took her to her pediatrician.

Theresa (our ped.) looked it over, felt it, measured it at about 8mm, and called another dr. in to look at it. Both said it was most likely a cyst, nothing to be worried about, though weird it popped up seemingly overnight, and to call if it changed at all or started to cause Paytin any pain.

At Paytin's 6 month check, Theresa re-evaluated it, and had yet another Dr. come in to check on it (I really like both our pediatrician and the entire office staff). They both again thought it to be a cyst. The second Dr. said if we were concerned, to go ahead and either get an ultrasound or get a needle biopsy done to ease our minds but that he didn't think it was necessary. Theresa said if it was her child, she'd get an ultrasound done just to make sure. There were a couple things that didn't follow the usual cyst like diagnosis, the color, and the fact that it was in her chest.

So armed with that information, in mid January, Mike and I took Paytin for an ultrasound at the hospital. In her car seat, with just the top part of her onesie un-buttoned, Paytin was oblivious that she was having any "procedure" done, and chatted with the technician during the entire two whole minutes of the ultrasound. But we weren't expecting the technician's first words to be "It definitely isn't a cyst." And her next words to be, "It's some type of tumor." Let me take a break, for those not medically savvy like myself and say that a tumor is essentially any mass in the body that isn't "supposed" to be there, at least that's how it was defined to me. She also stopped to show us "all the bloodflow" that surrounded it and the screen lit up like a firework around the circle on the screen. She told us because of all that bloodflow, it wasn't a cyst; it had a TON of bloodflow :(, so wasn't expecting that!

So we left, scared, nervous, but told it was probably benign and we would find out more on Monday. I am over dramatic, and I cried in the car just because of all the "what-if's" that started plaguing my mind.

And now, several weeks later, we still dont have many answers. There are a couple of things that have been thrown out, most common is called a hemangioma tumor, which is benign and will most likely go away by the time Paytin is 5 and cause her no complications later in life. However, the fact that it came out of nowhere, the fact that it's in her chest, under the skin, all don't really coincide with that definition either.

It took awhile, but we finally have a date scheduled and were refferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento to have our first consultation about it. Unfortunately Mike wont be able to go with us, but I am so grateful for my wonderful Uncle Jim and Aunt Judy who are going to help me out while we are there.

From what we've been told, I think we are expecting to have a needle biopsy done after our initial consultation to make sure we know what we are dealing with. But for now, I've told myself I'm going to take it one step at a time. All that's on my radar is that appt in three weeks and then we'll go from there.

I'm so grateful Paytin isn't in pain, that we are being sent to the best hospital that I can think of, that God nudged Mike and I to have it looked into, that our pediatrician has been a huge advocate for us, and that there have been blessings in every step of this. I know He is in control and even when I am emotional about it, that brings me a very very surreal peace about the whole situation.

Thank you all for your prayers!