The Ellington Family: Surgery

Yesterday, almost a week after her first birthday, Joselynn had her dermoid cyst removed. I first noticed the small, hard lump above her right eye when she was about 6 months old and we learned it was a dermoid cyst at our initial appointment at the eye institute. It has slowly gotten bigger over the past few months and every time she attempted to walk (and subsequently fall) we worried that she would hit it and rupture the cyst, so we decided to have it taken out shortly after her birthday. We were very nervous about her undergoing a surgical procedure so young but also anxious to have it removed.

We arrived at the Virginia Eye Institute surgical center at 7am on Tuesday. Josie was in a good mood despite not having anything to eat since I nursed her at 11:30pm. We checked in and headed back to a room where we went over a few things with a nurse. We met the anesthetist and less than an hour after we arrived, I had to hand Josie over to two doctors. She was NOT a happy camper. She's at the age where she's scared of strangers and it broke my heart to listen to her scream and cry as they walked her back. David and I went to the waiting room and tried to keep busy. It was not easy, especially as we watched one doctor come into the waiting room 6 different times to talk to parents about their kids getting tubes. Apparently this is a very fast procedure and we were a little jealous. Neither of us are very good at waiting patiently. Finally after about an hour and a half, the doctor came out and told us that the surgery had gone well. He said the cyst was larger and had deeper root nerves than he had anticipated but that they removed it all. When we were finally able to see her she was crying and pretty cranky. The ride home was not fun. She alternated between screaming and sleeping and her poor voice was horse. She slept a lot that afternoon and woke a few times last night. Today she was a little better in spirit but her eye was really swollen and bruised and she's in some pain. She looked pretty pathetic! We also have to change her bandage and add ointment three times a day and be very careful that she doesn't fall and rupture the stitches. Hopefully she'll start feeling better over the next few days and we'll have our happy baby back!