Matty had surgery on Friday to remove a brachial cleft cyst from his neck. We discovered the cyst last December after he and I were wrestling one night, and it went from small to big pretty quickly. Poor Matty was super self-conscious about it. We took him to see his pediatrician three times in December and January before we took him to Children's Hospital ER one night in February. It was then that we learned he had a brachial cleft cyst. We met with a pediatric otalynarologist in early March and learned he needed surgery to remove it. Thanks to a back log in the surgery center and COVID, it took months to get his surgery scheduled. The surgery was considered non-essential and there were no health risks in leaving the cyst there, thank goodness. However, poor Matty has been wearing hoodies all year to try and cover the bulge in his neck.
All week, Matty would burst into tears when we discussed his surgery. I had to take him for a CT scan with contrast on Wednesday, and he started crying when the nurse told him he would need an IV for the contrast. He had a look of fear in his eyes and even took a swing at me when the nurse left the room. He said I lied to him (He asked me earlier if he would need to have his blood drawn, and I said no. I did not realize he was asking more about needles than blood actually being drawn, and I thought he would have to drink something with the contrast). Anyways, I could see how nervous he really was when I saw some aggressive behavior coming out.
We arrived at Seattle Children's Hospital at 6:00 on Friday morning. Sweet Matty-boy was visibly nervous but did not whine or complain. When we were called back to the pre-op room, Matty got changed, had his vitals checked, and picked out the flavor of anesthesia he preferred (he chose root beer). A nurse offered to give Matty some "goofy juice." Another nurse suggested that he did not need it because he was so stoic, but Tommy and I agreed that he should have it. Boy, was that the right decision. He drank the goofy juice quickly and talked about how gross it was, but within ten minutes he was in la-la land. By the time he was taken by wheelchair into the operating room, he had no idea what was going on.
The surgery took 2.75 hours, which was an hour shorter than we were told. Praise the Lord! Tommy and I were all nerves as we sat in the cafeteria and tried to have normal conversation, but of course we were wondering what was going on with our little boy. When we met with the doctor at 11:30, she said the surgery went well and the removal was "clean." The cyst was 7 cm long, which is 2.75 inches. I was able to go back into the recovery room to see Matty, and the first thing he whispered to me was, "Mom, they never gave me the root beer flavored mask." I had to laugh. Yes, they did, buddy! You just did not remember.
We spent Friday night at the hospital. The nurses were all wonderful, and it was kind of nice to have a room for just the three of us. We ordered food from the cafeteria and from Dick's Burgers, watched baseball and WWE (Matty's new favorite show to watch - ugh), and slept as much as possible. Matty was discharged around noon on Saturday, and he is doing well as of today (Sunday). He was in a lot of pain on Saturday, mostly because all of the good drugs had worn off by then. :) He appears to be doing better today.
Thank you, Lord, for keeping our little boy safe and sparing him from any nerve damage. We are grateful.
0 comments:
Post a Comment