Yes, another surgery

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” – Dorothy Thompson

Chance is now 12 1/2 weeks old and we learned today that he has another surgery ahead of him in the near future. Here’s Chance earlier today…he’s one tough little dude.

For those who keep up with us in facebook or flickr you’ve likely heard my brief mention that we had to take Chance to visit a pediatric surgeon today. When he was about a month old he developed an umbilical hernia. Typically hernias are known to go away on their own within a few months but sometimes take a couple years. His pediatrician reassured us at his check ups that we’d just have to wait and that it’d likely go away on it’s own. Since then it’s gradually gotten larger. (there’s a picture in flickr for those who care to see just how large it has grown) I continued to hold onto the hope that it’d gradually go away. But it didn’t. In the last week I noticed a white line showing through his hernia. It’s grown so much that his skin in that area now appears a bit transparent. It didn’t take long before I remembered that his shunt has tubing that goes to his stomach to drain the fluid from his head because of his hydrocephalus due to his spina bifida. His neurosurgeon must love all the emails and calls from us when we get worried but thankfully she’s been there to answer questions. I sent photos of his hernia and shared my concerns and she referred us to see the pediatric surgeon today.

After visiting with the surgeon he agreed it was wise to intervene now, not merely because he has a hernia, but because the hernia is not likely to go away on it’s own due to it’s size and the continual draining of fluid from his shunt. The concern right now is that the skin around his hernia is so thin that his shunt tubing could poke through it. The other concern is that the hernia is causing the tubing to go into the hernia which could affect his shunt. It’s better for them to do the hernia surgery now than “wait and see” if it’ll go away and then him end up having issues with his shunt, or even worse, another shunt surgery.

So yes, it’s a total bummer that our little guy has to have another surgery. It’ll be his 5th surgery in less than 4 months. His surgery is scheduled for June 7th. Thankfully we’ve been reassured that it’s not a complicated surgery and that we shouldn’t be too worried. As long as he recovers okay we were informed that we should be able to take him home the same day. It’s obvious by now that he’s one tough little guy …so what’s one more surgery, right!? I imagine I must sound like the nervous worried mother again. I know he’ll be fine…so for now as we await his next surgery we’ll keep enjoying all the little moments with him and try our hardest not to worry too much.