So last year in October, McKenna ran into the edge (corner) of two walls in the hallway. It was on the side of her face, above/in front of ear in her temporal area. It hurt, she iced it, and life moved on. About 1 month after that she said that she still had a bump from it. She showed me, and was pretty shocked. It freaked me out enough that I called the doctor. Over the phone, they recommended massaging it a couple times a day to see if the fluid would reabsorb. I did that, however it started to look worse. Almost bruised. They had us come in, and honestly had no idea what it was. They started her on an antibiotic as a precaution for 2 weeks and said to call back if it doesn't go away. There was still no change following the 10 days, so they sent us to a dermatologist.
McKenna was freaked out and thought they were going to try to remove it right then and there. She was so serious during her appointment. She rarely has to face anything medical, so it was interesting to see her in this environment. I am so use to Macy having no fear, so I had to learn how to be a little more sympathetic to McKenna. Dermatology had two thoughts about what it might be, but said we couldn't be certain what it is until it was removed. Due to her age, and it being facial, they couldn't remove it using a local in the office. She would have to be put to sleep, so they sent us to see plastic surgery at Riley.
Our plastic surgery appointment fell during the quarantine, so that made it very interesting considering they really needed to look at the mass in person. I sent the most detailed pics that I could, and even used a ruler so they could get an idea about the size. We met online, the NP looked at the pics, and tried to see it over the camera. She again recommended removal, however they couldn't get us in for surgery until October 2. So we booked it!
McKenna was freaking out the entire week last week, knowing she was going to be put to sleep and have surgery. I asked her what she was so worried about....going to sleep? the pain following? Nope, she was nervous just to know that they were cutting her open. Macy was a great support and talked McKenna though what the whole experience would be like, even the before in pre-op, the during as she arrives in the OR, and the after in recovery. It was amazing to see and hear this! It helped for sure!
So when we arrived and met the surgeon, the first thing he said was "I can tell you right now that this isn't from her hitting her head on the wall." I was like "what?!?!?!". He said that he thought it was a Pilomatricoma. Basically it is a slow growing tumor. No where along the way had anyone set us straight saying that this probably wasn't from her hitting her head, until this moment. I felt kind of silly because that is what I had been saying all along. I just assumed since no one said otherwise that it was the case. I really liked this surgeon. He was fun, happy, and told it like it was! Following surgery, he came back to the room while she was in recovery, sat down in the chair, and chatted about it. He said removal went great, and that he still felt like it was a Pilomatricoma, and that we would know for sure following a report from pathology. He said they are very slow growing, and usually discovered following some sort of accident or bump.
Of course I read up on it when we got home, and was comforted to know that most of those tumors are benign. I just hoped that was what it was and it was benign. By Monday morning, I couldn't take it anymore, and called to see if they had heard anything from pathology. They told me that it could take 2-3 weeks to get results. However on Wednesday, the phone rang and I could see that it was the plastic surgery office. Freaked me out for a moment, wondering why they were calling so soon. Great news came though! It was a Pilomatricoma, and it was benign!
So if they got it all out on removal, it is very unlikely that it will not grow back. Our surgeon said it went great, and they removed it all, so I think we are good there. He did tell us that it can be a totally isolated event, or patients can get more over time. It just depends. We are praying that it was her one and only! Here are some before and after pics so you can see what it looked like:
I want to see what it looks like under the tape, however they want us to wait for the tape to fall off on it's own. He said they cut right along her hairline so it should be a nice scar. We'll treat her scar with the same stuff we use on Macy's scars, so hopefully that helps too.
As always, thanks for checking in on us! Happy Fall!
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