Surgery Update

Axel, 2013

The Bump, 2013

As much as we tried to distract ourselves with a very ordinary, family weekend, it's been an anxious few days around here. Last night my heart was racing and Will and I could barely talk about what we knew was around the corner this morning.

Today we got up before sunrise and took Axel to New York Presbyterian for his long-anticipated surgery.

I am thrilled to report it went as planned, and Axel is now resting comfortably in the PICU, where we'll stay overnight.

We first had a glimmer that Axel had some sort of mass at his 16 week anatomy scan (the medical term on his charts is "occipital mass.") The first concern was that he might have an encephalocele, a diagnosis that does not always come with great prognoses.

The other possibility was that it was a dermoid cyst, and something that was completely superficial and cosmetic in nature. Because of the ambiguity (which remained even after Axel had his MRI), his surgery was done by a pediatric neurosurgeon.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. The doctor found a golf ball-sized dermoid cyst, surrounded by CSF (spinal fluid) as well as a dime sized hole in Axel's skull, so he removed the cyst and repaired the hole with bone cement. All in all it took about an hour and half. The doctor doesn't know if the presence of the dermoid cyst so early on in his development caused the defect in the skull bone, or if he had a very minor encephalocele plus a dermoid cyst.

Either way, he doesn't think there are any long term concerns for our fellow.

We do know that we are going to be dealing with one cranky baby over the next several days, but also that we are very lucky.

He is sleeping just a few feet away from me as I type, his head wrapped in gauze with a sort of Mexican wrestler's mesh helmet over it. It's quite a sorry sight, but I am feeling very grateful for good surgeons and fot the fact that he will be back to his busy self in no time.

I will post more on his recovery soon, but for now just wanted to say all is well.