Commenting Challenge & Update on Reed

Hi!!! If you’re visiting from Jenna’s Journey’s Comment Challenge, WELCOME! So glad you stopped by! I’m Sarah! I’m an Arkansas girl and live with my husband Zach, and our two kids, Ava (4) and Reed (1). I love meeting new blog/twitter friends and happy to have you reading our blog. You can find me on other social media on the banners on the top of my blog! I have some updating to do since we just returned from vacation so I’m doing some regular posting instead of the prompts posted by Jenna! Hope you’ll read along!

So! I guess I left y’all hanging after Reed’s appointment at Arkansas Childrens Hospital on July 12. Here’s the thing – his appointment was at 8:00 a.m., and we walked out of ACH, and left from there for a week in Florida! I took the week off from blogging, so I’m ready to update on him now and the rest of this week I’ll have some vacation posts to share! (If you are unaware of what’s going on, you can read more about it here.)

As I said, Reed’s appointment was first thing in the morning on July 12. We arrived at Arkansas Children’s Hospital around 7:30, and immediately I was reminded how incredibly blessed we are to have two healthy children. Walking in, we passed a child coming out from chemo and one who looked like she was heading in for it. :(

We went ahead and checked in on the electronic check in system and within minutes were called to verify our info. By 7:45, we’d been called back to a room. Almost immediately, a resident came in and talked to us and examined Reed. He explained what a thyroglossal duct cyst is and the treatment for it. After some questions regarding Reed and his health, he left and briefed the doctor. The doctor came in just minutes after 8:00 and I liked him immediately. He was very personable, and spent all the time with us we needed.

He examined Reed’s lump and in his words, it is a “classic thyroglossal duct cyst”. The treatment, as we’d read, is surgery. He’ll have a surgery to remove the cyst. He’ll have about an inch long incision along his neck/throat and as I explained in this post, he will have a piece of his hyoid bone removed also.

Now. Chances are this is all that will need to be done. However, there is a chance the cyst could have cancer in it. If it does, the doctor called it “100% treatable”. He gave the impression that it wasn’t life threatening, which of course, makes me feel better, even though I wish that word hadn’t been mentioned in the appointment. There is also a 5% chance the cyst could grow again. If it does, we’ll be looking at surgery again.

The appointment was quick – we were finished with the doctor by 8:20 and then had to see the surgery scheduler. We were on our way to the beach by 8:45! INCREDIBLE!

Reed had a green snotty nose while we were there so we had to wait to have the surgery for 3-4 weeks from onset. It’s currently set for August 7, and we won’t find out the time until the day before. I’d planned to be off work this week because the kids won’t have anywhere to go that week so it was perfect timing, as everything about this has been. While I hated that this appointment was so late, it worked out well b/c we had to travel that way for our trip anyway. After his surgery, he will stay for one night in the hospital, which actually makes me feel better. We’d already agreed if they didn’t keep him, we’d be staying in a hotel in Little Rock that night. It made me nervous thinking about traveling home with him for 2.5 hours after he’d had surgery. Because of his age, once he leaves the hospital, tylenol is the strongest pain medicine he can have, so staying that night, they’ll be able to give him something a little stronger to make him more comfortable and hopefully allowing him to get some rest. While we aren’t out of the woods yet, I’m optimistic that surgery will be the end of this. We’ll have a follow up in a couple weeks after the surgery and I’m hoping that will be our last visit to ACH.

One good thing about his appointment was we stayed with my dear friend Chenin, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. It was soooooooo good to catch up with her face to face!

We would certainly appreciate in the days and weeks to come leading up to surgery. I know this is a minor issue compared to so many, and while I’m very grateful for that, I hate that my sweet boy has to go under anesthesia and have his neck cut. Thank you all for the support and prayers. I know there are SO many praying for Reed, and for us, and I cannot say thank you enough!!!!