Violet's Story

Some of you have probably heard that Vi is having surgery this week. The story is a little bit long but I wanted to blog about it because we have had so many wonderful friends express their love and concern. So here it goes - the story of Vi . . .
At the end of January Vi was super grumpy one Sunday morning. She wasn't sick or feverish or anything just acting cranky. Well Bo and I both had responsibilities at church to take care of so we decided she was just tired and figured she would take a nap at church like always and wake up fine. We loaded the kids in the van and headed off to church. We didn't even get out of the neighborhood before she started throwing up. So we brought her home and Bo stayed with her while I took the other kids to church. When we got home from church I noticed that it looked like she had fallen and hit the side of her face, she had a purplish lump right in front of ear ear kind of on her cheek. That was the night it all began for poor Vi.
So the next day she went to the dr. who told us she just had a bug and that lymph nodes swell in some people. I was worried a week later when it was still large so I called and he said it takes about a month before they go down sometimes so just be patient. (We love our Pediatrician by the way and nothing in this post is meant to be negative toward him because he has literally held our hands through this entire process.)
A month later we still had the lump so we went in and he ordered an ultrasound which only showed and enlarged lymph node and sent us to a pediatric surgeon. He wanted to lance and drain the lump but we didn't feel right about it. After talking with our doctor we decided to wait it out and see what happens. Sometimes these lumps will form a head and break open like a boil so we were hoping for that.
A friend of mine and I were talking and I filled her in on the situation. She talked about it with her hubby and he recommended we see an ENT as soon as possible. (He is an ENT by the way) It never dawned on me that an ENT might hold the keys to our problem because the lump wasn't in the ear, nose or throat but it made sense once she told me. We went to one who ordered a CT scan. The results were not great - it showed the lump on the parotid gland as well as lumps in her chest. He told us he couldn't do the surgery to remove the parotid gland until we had talked to a pulmonologist about the lumps in her chest.
So off we went to the pulmonologist who was fairly sure Violet had TB. Well after a million tests with her and negative TB test results she called and told us we needed to find a new ENT at TX Childrens to remove the lump. This way she could have easy access to lab results and lets face it - that is really where you want your kids to have surgery anyway.
Off we went to a new ENT who had bad news for us. He knew what the lump was but thought there was very little chance of it being resolved without surgery. So surgery isn't so bad right - wrong - this lump is sitting on her main facial nerve and the chances of complications are really high. The main risk is facial paralysis of the mouth and eye on the left side of her face. We scheduled surgery with a team of highly qualified doctors for this coming Friday.
The ENT then sent us to see an I.D. doctor to see if she could find a way to shrink the lump before surgery. We have to go back to see her again but right now it doesn't appear that the combination therapy she is on is not working. We have one last visit with the ID doctor on Wed. just to make sure they absolutely have to do the surgery. She is doubtful it will be called off so we are preparing for the surgery with a lot of prayers. I have a therapist coming to evaluate her a few weeks after surgery so hopefully we can get started on any issues she might have right away. So if you see me after Friday and my child has a million stitches (did I mention this is going to be a really large scar?) you will know the rest of the story. Thanks to all of our friends and family for their support during this trial. We love you all so much and really appreciate your prayers!
Heidi