watch and wait

Watch and wait is the name of the game for Mason lately...

I finally connected with the pediatric surgeon today. He feels comfortable moving forward with the surgery to repair Mason's hernia.... but I don't. With differing opinions, and the fact that the surgery isn't an emergency surgery, I'd like to wait until we can visibly see the hernia, he's uncomfortable or when his main doc can check him again at the one year check-up. The only risk of "watching and waiting" is the risk of strangulation - occurs when part of the intestine gets trapped inside the hernia. This happens about 5% of the time and requires emergency surgery.

Got a call from Liz that Mason has not been eating well and been really fussy. She suspected an ear infection. I called the clinic and got an appt for 3:30pm. Doc checked him out and said his ears are "suspicious". He gave us a prescription for amoxicillin and said only to fill it if he gets a fever (which he hasn't had yet) or if the cold and stuffiness persists a week from now. Let's hope kid #2 will be better about taking meds (and doesn't puke at the sight of the bottle).

And since we were at the doc (which happened to be a different one, but one we also know), we asked him to check out Mason's supposed hernia. He couldn't find one either. Both him and the surgeon think that the "baby fat" in that area may be making it hard to find - or making it appear to be a hernia when it isn't. So, as I discussed with the surgeon earlier in the afternoon, we'll watch and wait.

bootie bump

Tonight Zander and I were doing word flashcards. He was working on the word "soon". He wasn't quite sure how to sound out the two o's, so I helped him a bit. I told him they sound like "ooooh" and he responded, "like bootie bump?!" and then bumped me from the side with his little bootie. I was laughing so hard and asked where he heard that. He said, "dad always gives me bootie bumps!"

Sunday events

Cookie baking
Went to my parent's house to bake cookies with Mom and Marissa (and Jason). We made 7 kinds, 7! Jason requested frosted sugar cookies and wanted to do the frosting, so we let him.

Zander: Are you going to work, mom?
Me: No, to grandma Karen's house.
Zander: Who else is going to be there?
Me: Just me, Gma Karen and Auntie 'Rissa.
Zander: Oh, it's just for girls, then.
Me: Yep (I better not tell him that Uncle Jason was there!)

Dinner
Girls dinner at Big Bowl with Tara and Stacy. Love catching up with friends (and yummy food too)!

I'm taking the day off work tomorrow to do x-mas shopping. I'll probably hit Rosedale and a few other places.

Christmas early?!

Today I received the KOTM (kit of the month) I ordered. I'm so excited to use them!

Game back on...maybe

The pediatric surgeon talked with the primary physician who said she definitely felt a hernia, so the pediatric surgeon left us a message that he wants to go ahead with the surgery, but wants to talk to us first. He's not available until next week, so we'll find out more next week. I'd like to know if we can "watch and wait". I'd hate to put Mason through surgery that he doesn't need. I want to find out if there's any negative repercussions with waiting and watching.

False alarm - no double hernia

Today was Mason's appointment with the pediatric surgeon. He couldn't find any signs of a hernia - that was originally diagnosed by Mason's regular doctor. He was very thorough. He said that a hernia would usually be the size of a golf ball - very obvious. This wasn't the case for Mason, and after the exam, he still didn't think Mason has a double hernia. The surgeon does want to talk with Mason's regular that diagnosed it to gets her thoughts. The surgeon said that 25% of the time, a hernia doesn't show itself at random times.... so he wants to talk with her to see how she came to her diagnosis. At Mason's check-up on Monday, she showed us what she thought to be the hernias and this was similar to how things looked today with the surgeon.... so I'm pretty sure there is no hernia. Whew! A sigh of relief after we heard the good news from the surgeon.

Mason update

Monday 12/3 was Mason's 9-month check-up. It started out well. Mason is meeting all his developmental milestones. He's still on the small side (18 lbs, 4 oz), but acceptable. Then, his doc did a physical exam...and found that he has a double hernia and needs surgery to repair it! :( This is quite common on Mana's side of the family. Mana and his dad had a single hernia. Mana's brother had a double hernia and all of Mana's uncles had hernias. Just a bad gene I guess. So far, Zander has lucked out. So, the next step is to meet with a pediatric surgeon. We're doing that Thursday afternoon. The surgeon will assess how soon the surgery needs to be scheduled (which will be at Children's Hospital in St. Paul) and we'll go from there. Poor little guy! Here's a few pictures from this weekend. He's climbing up onto everything!!