Carter's Specialist Appointment

Most of you who read my blog know what I'm talking about but to inform those of you who do not know, Carter was born with a cyst up by his collar bone on his neck. My aunt who has 5 kids of her own noticed a small dimple (yes like what you have when you smile) when he was only 3 weeks old. We brought him to his pediatrician to have it checked out and he said we needed to see a specialist when Carter was closer to 6 months old.

To give you a little insight of the size of the cyst, I tried to take a picture of it and you couldnt even see it in the picture. The dimple on the outside of his skin is about 1/4 of a pea in size. If you press down on the dimple you can feel a knot underneath about the size of a pen tip. It is so tiny that when I show people they are like, how in the world did you find that??

Yesterday the time had come to see the specialist at Children's Hospital and now we finally have some answers about what it is and what needs to be done.

This is something called a branchial cyst or remnant. The surgeon said he sees this all the time and it is very common. He recommended that we get it removed to avoid infection of it in the future but said that it is not a pressing matter.

Some kids have drainage that comes out of the cyst which usually means it connects to their throat, but Carter has not had anything like that and so the surgeon thinks his is just a very shallow one.

And, believe it or not, many children who are born with something like this don't even notice it until they are in their teens and it gets infected and forms a white head that will not go away on it's own. Crazy, huh?

With that being said, we decided to schedule surgery for Carter at 9 months old. It is usually about a 15-20 minute surgery and we can leave the hospital the same day.

I am very relieved to know something finally. The suspense was killing me! To me, a knot is something that is associated with cancer so I'm glad to know that is out of the question.

God is so good and he has answered our prayers! I am still nervous about my baby having surgery, but I know God will get me through it!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! They are definitely appreciated!

If anyone knows of anyone who has had the same thing or something similiar, I would love to hear about it.