You have all heard the saying, and some of you know it to be true more than others; well, Lukie just joined the “some of you”. Not only does Lukie Lynn know that its not fair when your brother always gets more, gets to go first, gets to pick first, gets to ride in front, gets to go to sleepovers or sit by Mommy when we go out to eat or watch a movie, now Lukie Lynn knows its not fair the hands you are dealt in life.
This summer while on our annual visit to Grandpa and Grandma Walker’s house in Nebraska (on Mommy’s birthday, none the less), Lukie was leaning back over the bed while getting dressed and Mommy seen a lump in his groin. It was about 2” by 1” and pretty solid. The immediate thing that came to mind was a hernia. We all looked it over and thought it must be. So, when we got back to SD we made an appointment for Lukie squeezing him in with Jake’s 2 month shots. <July 14th>
When the appointment time came Lukie was a really good boy, he let them take his height and weight and vitals (something they weren’t allowed last year). Our doctor is excellent with kids and a really nice guy who we really like. When he came in and examined, he declared, “it’s not a hernia, it’s his lymph node”. My heart sank. Right then I knew it was not something to mess with. I didn’t want hernia surgery for my baby either, but this, this could be worse. <July 20th>
The doctor gave him a round of antibiotics and said that he could have build up from an infection asking if he had been sick or had any cuts or scrapes on his legs. Well, he’s a three year old little boy who has walked since 9 months, scaled countertops since 11 months and ran since 12 months keeping up with, or rather, sent on scouting jobs by his two big brothers. I once found him on the third shelf of our pantry smuggling a snack for Zach. Another time he was on tippy toe atop the counter perched to grab a toy taken away and stashed on top the fridge. There is no place he can’t get to and no stunt he won’t try.
The antibiotics did nothing to change the size of the mass (trust me we checked daily, sometimes hourly). The doctor had said if it didn’t the next step would likely be a biopsy. We went had talked to some friends who’s daughter had a mass in her armpit node and it turned out to be a harmless calcified lymph node. We hoped we would have the same such luck. We had doubled up our next appointment with Zach’s kindergarten shots. When the doctor examined Luke and found the mass the same, there was a lengthy silence in a room with 8 people ranging in age from 10 weeks old to mid fifties….try that sometime, it really isn’t pleasant like one might expect when pondering silence. After what seemed like an eternity (as the saying goes), I asked if we needed to do the biopsy where would that take place in hopes to have him just spit it out already and when he still looked reluctant to answer, Wayne asked if there was any chance it could be a calcified node. The doctor finally replied,s “At this point no, it’s a soft node with a mass that’s not small enough not to worry and not big enough to be definite. I am referring you to a surgeon for a surgery consult.”
Well there, at least we have a next step now and are a bit closer to what we are dealing with. <August 7th>
Today we went in for the surgery consultation. The surgeon was a kind but straight forward guy. He examined the mass and asked the same questions we had answered before. This time when asked if he had any cuts or scrapes on his legs Wayne, who had not been with the very first appointment, just laughed out loud. The surgeon said “he’s a three year old boy right?” Right. He also asked about pets??? No pets (surprising being my kid and my house right? If you knew me in my kid years I collected pets sneaking them home and rescuing them from roadways and plucking them from ponds and farms all the time. I was “lizard girl” for years, proudly).
After obtaining the information he wanted he stated that he would like to remove the entire thing (I am still unsure at this point whether he means the entire node or the entire mass, Wayne thinks entire node. Some things do present as a blur no matter how hard you try to fight it and focus). He said they would then send it to pathology and find out if it is benign. He also said that he, thus far, is not presenting with additional symptoms of lymphoma such as fevers, night sweats or masses in other nodes. This is good. I am no expert on cancer, but from what I have read and researched, I believe that if it is benign and removed, other than the overprotective paranoia that set in upon first sight of the wretched thing, we could be fairly done with the damned situation with limited monitoring. If it comes back as another form of cancer or whatever else is out there that wasn’t mentioned, well, at this point we haven’t let ourselves go there. <August 10th>
The surgery is scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning (the 14th) at the Spearfish Regional Hospital as an outpatient low risk surgery with a hopeful low risk of complications barring it is not attached to anything other than the node which they will not know until they get in there.
Your thoughts and prayers are welcome and appreciated. We have been through multiple stressors in our past, this pretty much tops the lot just above the blue baby rushed to the NICU in 2006 and the losses in 2010 and 2011. We are keeping our chins up best we can, however, the occasional snaps do occur and the memory lapses are frequent. If you see us around or expected appearances in the near future, apologies in advance, but we are not always stable and have reverted to our home-bodied personalities absorbing as much family time as possible.
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