Justin's Surgery

So- we've had a little bit of a stressful last couple of weeks regarding this "little" thing that started growing on the bridge of Justin's nose. It first appeared at the beginning of June and looked like he just scratched himself. After a couple of weeks, it looked more like a blood blister or small red zit, so of course I tried to pop it, but it didn't do anything, so I left it alone. At the end of June, I had a dermatologist appointment and asked my Dr. what it was. He said it was no big deal, just a small hemagioma that would probably resolve itself over time.

A hemangioma of infancy is a benign self-involuting tumor (swelling or growth) of endothelial cells, the cells that line blood vessels.

I decided not to worry about it and let it do it's thing until mid July when we were about to get on a plane to UT and Justin scraped it. It bled for the entire 2 hour flight and then some. The same thing happened the next night. After that, it was flat again, and we thought, "Maybe this is good?! Maybe it will just go away now since the whole thing got scraped off."

No such luck. The thing came back with a vengeance. It started growing rapidly after that and then the past week has been super sensitive meaning it starts bleeding if Justin merely rubs his eye. After several morning of having to scrub puddles of blood out of his sheets, not to mention his cute little face, we were able to get him in to get it removed today. How we were able to get him in with one of the best plastic surgeons at UCLA so quickly and have insurance pay for it all is a whole other story that is nothing short of a miracle, but I won't get into all that. I will say, however, that we feel very blessed and know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and everything we go through. I am so grateful for my faith and for the power of prayer.

Here it is on Aug. 8th (above and below)

The following 3 photos are just 2 1/2 weeks later on the 25th.
The skin around it is also irritated because we have had to try to keep a band-aide on it.
Plus it's bloody because it has been so sensitive the past week or so. Sad.

Our cute little patient before surgery.

There is a bloody band-aide covering it in these pictures because it ruptured pretty bad this morning about 2 hours before we had to be at the hospital...of course!

Headed into the surgery room. We couldn't go with him. They had me give him an oral serum that made him relax before they took him away. It reacts to the same receptors as alcohol, so basically it was like he was a little tipsy. I'm glad he didn't fuss when we had to leave him, that would have gotten me unglued.

After the procedure (it was super short, only about 45 minutes total) we were called in from the waiting room. I have never seen Justin so upset. He was "mad as the dickens" as the Dr. said. And yes he was. It took a while for him to calm down, even with me holding him and Ryan trying to read his favorite book to him. But after he had a bottle (he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before and it was about 2:30 pm at this point) and a couple of potato chips, he started to feel better. He has 3 little stitches and in a couple weeks, he should be good as new! Aside from being kinda grouchy this afternoon, he has fully recovered and went to bed nice and early tonight. Thank goodness for modern medicine and good doctors. We are so grateful.

On our way home...his face is a little swollen here and his eyes are puffy from crying, but he was laughing and running around again within a few hours.

When we got home, we found our door had been decorated with pictures and a nice letter for Justin by his 2 best friends, Jackson (5) and Bennett (2). We love them so much!
(Thanks Michelle!)