Here We Go Again

Yesterday was a long day for us....we spent four hours in Huntsville Hospital with yet another pediatric surgeon. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a pediatric surgeon (never had a need to know I suppose), but Cate has had us visiting them so much lately I feel like they're family! I'll go ahead and give you the warning that this might be a little graphic if you have a weak stomach. I'm not much for the sight of blood and get that feeling like my knees will buckle when I see it, but I've seen it several times over the past month - coming from Cate's naval. Not something a mother wants to see. The first time it happened I brushed it off thinking that if it happened again I'd call her doctor. The next week it happened again, so we made a trip to the pediatrician. He couldn't find anything on the outside that could be causing it, but explained that it could be coming from a connection to one of her organs (from her belly button) that should have closed before birth, but in rare cases it doesn't. The doc told me to watch her closely and if it happened one more time we needed to call him immediately. Well it did. Saturday morning before I left to go to Anna Kate's baby shower Cate was in the bath and it started bleeding freely. Naturally, I panicked. I called her doctor's office and the only doctor on call was a complete quack (who diagnosed Towns with a common cold back in February when in actuality she had the flu, bronchitis, and a double ear infection). I politely told the on call doctor (who is in no way affiliated with our pediatrician's office) I'd wait until Monday morning when our doctor would be in the office. I made the phone call the minute the office opened, told the nurse what had happened, and she told me she'd tell Dr. K and call me right back. Five minutes later she called and had already scheduled Cate an appointment with a pediatric surgeon in Huntsville. I freaked. Could it really be something serious?! Our appointment was yesterday morning, and I went in with a knot in my stomach to say the least. I absolutely loved the doc though, and realized I could trust him completely within minutes of meeting him. (Side note: I did not feel that way about the pediatric surgeon at Children's in Birmingham so we're canceling her surgery there and are going to have either a plastic surgeon or an pediatric orthopaedic surgeon remove the fibroma from her toe in Huntsville - that appointment will come possibly next week) His first theory was exactly the same thing our pediatrician told us - the connection from her bladder to her naval never closed before birth. But just to be on the safe side he ordered an umbilical ultrasound. I found out today that the ultrasound didn't show anything abnormal so he's still almost certain it's the bladder connection that's the culprit of the bleeding. The only scary thing is that there's a possibility that since she's got the fibroma on her toe, it could also mean that there are some inside her body that attach themselves to organs. The surgeon said it's highly unlikely that she's got them on the inside, but he couldn't rule it out completely. SO, long story even longer, Tuesday morning she'll be admitted to Huntsville Hospital to have surgery to fix whatever is causing the bleeding. We're praying that it's just the bladder connection that needs to be closed because that's an easy fix. It will require a small incision below her naval and she'll be able to go home the same day of the surgery. What we're currently working on is getting her toe fixed at the same time so that she only has to be put to sleep once and we can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Her surgery was originally scheduled for Monday morning, but I already had a procedure scheduled with my dermatologist to remove some pre-cancerous spots - and I'd already rescheduled it a couple of times so they wouldn't let me out of it this time!! Please say a prayer for us next week! I know I'll be just fine with what I'm having done, but it's Cate I'm worried about. I just really hope and pray they don't have any surprises when they look inside of her and that whatever is wrong is fixable.

Towns was the sweetest thing at the hospital yesterday. Four hours (that felt like four hundred) is a long time for a 3 year old to be content in that situation. As a treat before we left the hospital I took her to ride the tram that connects all the buildings in the hospital. She thought that was the most wonderful thing ever! She's picked up more than I realize from being in on all these appointments with us...on the way home yesterday I heard "and please help get that 'fibrona' off of Bug's toe. Amen" and when I asked her who she was talking to she said "the Lord". If that's not the most precious thing I don't know what is!!

Riding the tram...

Towns officially named herself "button pusher" while we were at the hospital. And such a fine job she did. You have to make light of a situation like this, so of course we had to take some silly pictures!

Sweet baby...she was so tired after a long day of everyone poking and prodding her!