The last 48 hours

I am starting this with: Ian is fine. And then moving on from there.

On Wednesday afternoon Grandma D noticed a large fluid lump on Ian's head. It moved with gravity and was not there the day before. She called me. I was on a crisis call in another County and did not have cell coverage. So she called Mr. C who called the doctor. The doctor said she didn't know what it was and told Mr. C to take him to the emergency room. I finally got the call after 5. And rushed over. By then Ian had been taken back and looked at by the doctor who had no idea what it was. They decided to do an ultrasound on it. Now keep in mind that he was not acting sick or hurt and kept eating. After several hours at the emergency room in Cary they decided that since the ultrasound was inconclusive (it was either something or nothing) Ian needed to be sent to the pediatrician ward in Raleigh. We waited for an ambulance and I rode over with him and Mr. C drove behind us.

The doctors at the sister hospital didn't know what it was either. They all poked and prodded at it and said that they wanted to watch him overnight and in the morning would discuss it with a treatment team. I stayed with him all night and Mr. C went home to take care of Melly and help Grandma D. In the morning, nothing had changed. The treatment team all came in and squished the lump around and decided that it was probably nothing but just to make sure they wanted to do an MRI of his head. So we scheduled one of those.

Ian was an angel in the MRI. He slept through the whole thing. A little while later the doctors came up to say that there was nothing wrong with his brain or his skull. They have tentatively diagnosed him with a hematoma (sp?). It was probably started when he was born because of the vacuum that was used. However they think it is completely benign and we were discharged last night. We have a list of things to watch for, but were told that most likely it will go away on its own.

I have never been in an ambulance before. And I hope to never do it again. And I will say that there is nothing scarier than seeing your 6 week old put into a hospital gown and strapped onto an ambulance.