NOT COOL
A few days before Christmas, I noticed a sore on the inside of Eryn's bottom lip. I ignored it because she wasn't complaining, and it looked like the sort of annoying sore you get if you bite the inside of your cheek (or, in this case, the inside of your lip). I forgot all about it until I saw a flash of it last night when she was laughing. Then, it was bigger and blood-filled. Scooter and I agreed she was going to see her doc today, but I couldn't get her in to see her NP (Ellen Connolly-Eckhoff, she's wonderful), couldn't get her in to see anyone at her clinic, and couldn't even get through to the nurse line. (Is it flu season, you think?) So I called our own private nurse line to see what she thought. She sounded a bit doubtful, but encouraged me to take advantage of our other "in" and get Eryn in at her clinic. So, called Friend At Clinic, got passed to Nurse At Clinic, who told me to bring Eryn in to see a doc. Did that, glad I did, but freaked out now. (BTW, Dr. Jason Nowak was excellent, and made it okay that we couldn't see Ellen.)
Dr. Jason looked at the "owie" and said "interesting." (Oh, crap.) Then he excused himself by saying he needed to go "look up a couple of things." (Oh, crap.) He came back with a text complete with color photos and showed us what he thought was up with Eryn's lip: a salivary gland mucocele. Okay, he said, no reason to panic, but the general treatment is surgical removal. (OH, CRAP!) I thought I was wasting a doc's time with some stupid canker sore, and he tells us it's probably this other stupid thing, but a stupid thing that requires slicing into our little girl. He referred us to an oral surgeon, and we have an appointment with her at the end of the month.
The good news is that mucoceles are painless, so apparently Eryn has been telling us the truth when she says it does hurt. It looks painful:
I know, she looks upset. She wasn't - she was just sick of having her lip mucked with.
Scooter went back to work and looked up mucoceles right away and found this pictorial of the surgical excision of a mucocele. If you're of weak constitution or one of Eryn's grandparents, you may not want to click on the link. If you're her freaky-likes-to-watch-surgery-on-Discovery-Health-aunt, go for it.
Dr. Jason looked at the "owie" and said "interesting." (Oh, crap.) Then he excused himself by saying he needed to go "look up a couple of things." (Oh, crap.) He came back with a text complete with color photos and showed us what he thought was up with Eryn's lip: a salivary gland mucocele. Okay, he said, no reason to panic, but the general treatment is surgical removal. (OH, CRAP!) I thought I was wasting a doc's time with some stupid canker sore, and he tells us it's probably this other stupid thing, but a stupid thing that requires slicing into our little girl. He referred us to an oral surgeon, and we have an appointment with her at the end of the month.
The good news is that mucoceles are painless, so apparently Eryn has been telling us the truth when she says it does hurt. It looks painful:
I know, she looks upset. She wasn't - she was just sick of having her lip mucked with.
Scooter went back to work and looked up mucoceles right away and found this pictorial of the surgical excision of a mucocele. If you're of weak constitution or one of Eryn's grandparents, you may not want to click on the link. If you're her freaky-likes-to-watch-surgery-on-Discovery-Health-aunt, go for it.
posted by PTW | 1:20 PM
2 Comments:
When Emma was about a year old we had to have a "suspicious" mole on her cheek removed. So I kinda know what you're feeling. Ask me about the excision sometime. Bleah.
Certainly not as cool when you know it has to be done on li'l eryn! I'm glad you went in, sorry about the findings!!
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