inguinal hernia – surgery here we come!

After the whole intussusception thing – I was super sensitive about Alex’s tummy area.  Did it hurt here?  I would press on it an feel.  Does it hurt here?  I would press on it there.  I was super vigilant.  So, not long after the event – I noticed one side of his groin was puffy, and when I pushed on it he would say it hurt a little bit.  I was sure I was being overly cautious, but had Lance check it out just to make sure.  Sure enough, he saw that it was puffy on one side and a little bit painful when he pushed on the area. 

 

The next day, we took a peek again, nothing there.  And over the course of about a week.  In and out, in and out – literally!  So, we scheduled a visit with the pediatrician and sure enough – all the signs and symptoms of a hernia.  Not the kind of hernia adults get from lifting too much, but one he was born with and one that wouldn’t go away without … surgery. 

 

He has an inguinal hernia – common in boys and preemies apparently.  It happens when the lining around the abdominal organs does not close all the way, the inguinal canal.  It seems he only has it on this right side.  Although not life threating right now, it could be in the future and there is no “wait and see” for this type of issue.  It won’t go away and has to be fixed surgically.  I didn’t realize the issues until visiting with the surgeon this past week – not only could something go through that hole, get infected, etc.  But there are blood vessels that go through there that go to his testicles, as well other tubes and vessels that would all loose blood supply if that got cut off from circulation. 

 

The crazy thing is – this is so much easier to schedule than ear tubes.  Ear/Nose/Throat surgery took ~2 months to get done, with one month to get the first available appointment (trust me – we wanted it as soon as possible!) and ~ one month to schedule the surgery at Children’s.  Now, general surgery is a snap.  They saw with in less than 7 days, and scheduled surgery for this Thursday. 

 

So, Alex is getting surgery on Thursday at Children’s Hospital in Seattle – please keep him in your thoughts that day.  So far, he doesn’t think much of it when we talk about it.  But, we’ll see as the days go by…  Probably Lance and I are having more of a tough time right now than he is. 

 

We talked about him getting surgery and all he really had to say was “So I don’t get to wrestle for a little while, like Daddy?”.  We say yep, no wrestling for a while.  (Lance had Lasik surgery in September and couldn’t wrestle for a week or two, apparently quite a big impact on Alex).