It seems like a comet's revolution since my Humanling had her last seizure. In our house the revolution time frame is tweaked just a tad. But if she goes to this Saturday without a seizure, it will be three weeks I believe. That's a long stretch for us. With school being out and she not having to feel the wrath of her dastardly Not Special at all Ed teacher, she can be more relaxed and who knows, maybe that lends a hand. She also does not have to wake up quite as early.
I don't know if I've mentioned but Humanling showed me this thing on her head back in December. She is the master of obtaining "things" on her skin or weird symptoms of some kind that lie across the border of 'iffy' for a doctor's attention. The kind where if you go to the doctor's office for it, you aren't rushing for an appointment for fear of looking like a hyper insurance spending dolt. The kind of things where you coolly tell the receptionist, "Three months from now? Yeeeeaaaahhhh. That's just fine." But this .... growth (ew...the word is even ominous) was on her scalp. And as the proud owner of a child with issues that affect the brain, I don't want anything except hair on her scalp. I don't need extra riddles and puzzles going on up there. It was taunting her daily so that her little talons were tearing it up at night. After she got a hold of it, it was an angry red and swollen mass, way overdressed for this party.
I think I recall her pediatrician saying it was eczema or something of that ilk and recommending I see a dermatologist. Who recommended what he thought it probably was, but wanted us to try a steroid cream for about a month first. I freaked over the S word but was bolted back down to the ground with doctor speak. He mentioned the amount she was getting was so small (but it's near her brain!) and that it wasn't the home run hitting type. Reluctantly I tried it and it didn't do anything except make Herman the Growth, less angry looking.
Ah, so we found out that Herman is actually from the Nevus Sebaceous species. According to Wikipedia, it is a "congenital, hairless plaque that typically occurs on the face or scalp. Likely it was there since birth. But once those precious beings of ours hit puberty, Herman also hits puberty and grows larger.
The downside to this visitor is that it can overstay its welcome and turn on its owner. Nevus can Jekyll and Hyde right into sebaceous carcinoma. Or that icky C word, skin cancer. Although I'm told it's a more benign type. My mantra again....but it's near the brain!!! No cancer thank you, will be ok at all, nevermind near her brain. I'm not sure about other moms of Eppies but I am overprotective of her head. A snowflake is lucky I don't shoot it for landing on her head.
So today was our appointment with the plastic surgeon to have it removed. She was a great sport and played her DSi throughout. But don't let the photo fool you. The needle they used to anesthetize her head was shiver worthy. She is usually the kid who will watch blood being drawn from her arm. Today however, she was obviously in a lot of pain. The removal part did not hurt, thankfully. But her shirt was somewhat ruined by blood (although they tried all the laundry tricks immediately with peroxide). The doctor laughed when I said to her, "Your hair is a beautiful shade of red now!" It was all blood. They cleaned her up as best as could be done and nine staples later, we were outta there!
We very much could have had her knocked out. But....I don't like the thought of putting that type of anesthesia in her body - she's just a bean pole. And a bean pole with epilepsy. So we went for a local.
There are risks with the local as well.... arrhythmia and seizures. Seizures show up enough that I'm used to them. I don't want to learn how to deal with arrhythmia in a child. I asked if this is the type of problem that shows up a lot or if it happened in the history of the procedure somewhere and they have to cover bases by telling me. It turned out to be the latter.
She's pretty sore and it looks really tender. I'm left with the thought of wow, I saw a big hole in her head....should I have taken a picture? There won't be another moment like that! I have no idea how any doctor looks at that and has a normal life when he clocks out.
Moving over to the research side, I question many things to see if they have anything to do with epilepsy. Typing in Nevus Sebaceous and Epilepsy to my buddy Google, yields minimal but informative results. DermNet NZ says "Neurological disorders are rare, but occasionally occur in children with very large sebaceous naevi. Epileptic seizures are the most common problem."
Why did I have to Google that to find this out? No doctor is telling me about it and I'll bet that I will be two for two when I inform her neurologist of this. (The plastic surgeon did not seem to be aware of it). My question is now of the chicken or egg variety....does this growth cause the epilepsy? Is it a byproduct? Will removing it better a cure? That last sentence should have a few rainbows, unicorns and Channing Tatum scrubbing my dishes. It's a little far fetched, I know. But I do have to wonder.
Say Goodnight, Herman. Goodnight Herman.
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