Well, we saw the pediatric surgeon today. Dr. Tamura is a very nice, very thorough physician. He went through the progression of Logan's abscess, all of our history, and kept him involved the entire time. Of course, no matter how much Logan liked him, he was NOT going to let anybody "pinch" his butt!
I'm really glad that Darwin was able to make it this morning. We actually had to hold the poor kid down so the doctor could get a good look at the abscess. Apparently it's not looking bad this morning - getting a nice puss-y head on it, but not really red. Logan was very unhappy, but looked relieved when nobody tried to pop his butt.
A few white-board diagrams later, Dr. Tamura had explained that what Logan likely has is a sort of tunnel between his butt cheek and the inside of his rectum. Bacteria grows there, and slowly fills the tunnel, until it reaches the outer edge and forms a pustule under the skin. These are apparently fairly common in children. Best course (since we've done at least 6 rounds of abx so far!) is to go in endoscopically, and follow the tunnel to it's inner opening. Cauterize the opening and continue cautery on the way back out. The idea is that the tunnel will fill in with scar tissue, blocking the acess and curing the problem.
But there's a kicker. Apparently these types of abscesses can proliferate throughout the body, and they don't always manifest where you can see them. The hope right now is that this is the only one, it can be cured, and will not recur anywhere else. The other hope is that Logan's upset tummy, sore throat and sore mouth is due to his current round of antibiotics, and not to diffuse disease.
Surgery is scheduled for August 31. It seems we will get a call sometime the day before with instructions on surgical prep, arrival time, etc. Seems an odd way to do it, but whatever. The first available was the 24th, but Darwin has an out of town class that whole week, and Aidan starts school on the 23rd, Campus Club on the 24th, and all of that with surgery and a convalescent kid would have been WAY too much for me on my own!
I'm praying that the current abscess calms down enough so that Logan can get through a day without Tylenol or Motrin (which he has not been able to do for 4 days now). Prayers and positive thoughts welcomed!
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Gimme some love and tell me what you think! No really, I can take it. I'll just double-up on those anti-depressants first.
I may not be able to reply back quickly (I am a mom after all), but I read each and every word you type!