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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Inguinal Hernia and My New Favorite

Every once in a while I take a photo that becomes my new favorite photo. It's not necessarily a striking photo or one of very good quality.....yet it fills my soul with love and in all the craziness that is life, it brings my mind and heart back to where it should be. Here is my new favorite photo:


Here are two others that just make my heart swell.... 



Tomorrow we are taking Timothy to OHSU in Portland. He has a consultation appointment with the pediatric surgeon at 9:30am. In all the busyness that was the holidays, I never did blog about our most recent medical drama. Probably because it just makes me feel sick.

A few days before Thanksgiving, while we were at my mom's in CA, I noticed that Timothy's right groin area was swollen. My first thought was a swollen lymph node. He was in fact sick, so it seemed to fit. A few days after that the swollen area went down. A few days after that it came back. This happened over and over again over the course of a few weeks. He would be swollen, then he wouldn't, then he would again. I knew it wasn't a swollen lymph node at this point and knew I had put it off long enough....it was time to take him in. I was getting more and more nervous about it. 

I called our pediatrician and made an appointment for him. After making that appointment, I hopped on the computer and came to the conclusion that Timothy had a hernia. I was proved right when the pediatrician confirmed. Timothy had an Inguinal Hernia and would need surgery to correct it. I was crushed and mad at myself for waiting those couple weeks to take him in.

UGH. 

If you would like to read more about Inguinal Hernia, please go HERE or HERE

While it's been hard not to completely loose my shit knowing my baby will have to undergo surgery, I take comfort in knowing this is actually quite common and it is relatively easy surgery (or so I've been told). He is experiencing no pain, just some heaviness and discomfort every now and again. It seems to bother me more than it does him. I hate seeing it. I hate touching it. I hate it when it's big. I can never seem to push it back up like the pediatrician says I should be able to do. And I'm always on the look out for the signs of an emergency.....having the hernia become rock hard, red or blue, hot to the touch, Timothy not eating or throwing up. This would mean the hernia became pinched or stuck and we would need to take him into the emergency room asap.

Tomorrow's appointment is just a consultation. We will know the date of his actual surgery tomorrow I hope. I also hope it's not too far out. He's already gone long enough with this hernia....since before Thanksgiving. I don't know why we had to wait this long just to get into his consultation, I hope it doesn't take as long to get into his surgery. Every day that goes by is another day where the hernia could become pinched or stuck and the worry just makes me sick. 

Please think happy thoughts for us tomorrow! I would appreciate it!

With love,
Mama Hauck


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