I don't believe I wrote about Dane's appointment with the ENT two weeks ago (has it been that long?) It was his 2 month post-op and time to do another CT Scan to see what's really going on in that little head.
Nuttin' but bad news. Dane is at least as socked in as he was before his surgery, maybe even worse. The doctor kept muttering, "I'm so disappointed. This is really disappointing." which doesn't exactly instill confidence in the patient.
The crux of the matter is this: the frontal sinus' are located in the forehead, just in front of the brain and separated from the brain by a thin, small bone. In children, the frontals are very small and there's always a danger of perforating the bone and allowing infection, etc. open access to the brain in an attempt to poke drain holes in the frontal sinus'. Huge danger. The ethmoids, which are on the sides of the nose just below the frontals are much easier to access and, in Dane, his two worst areas were the frontals and the ethmoids. Dr. Harmon was trying to very conservative, which pleased me immensely. After all, Dane's only 9 years old.
His final decision was to leave the frontals alone but to clear holes in the ethmoids, hoping that gravity would pull the mucous down from the frontals into the ethmoids once the ethmoids were no longer full of fluid. Turns out, the ethmoids have never drained and the frontals are seriously inflamed and FULL of puss. He showed me two pictures of Dane - one with him on his back, the other with him on his stomach. There was a thin layer of air at the top of the ethmoids and frontals. But since the body positioning changed from one picture to the next, he explained that the entire contents of both of those sinus' is fluid (puss) and is moving with Dane's body positioning. Bad news and news which the doctor found very upsetting.
Prognosis? Antibiotics, yet again, to try and clear up infection but, if he's not significantly better in two months, they'll have to operate again, going into the frontals this time. It seems they have to give the body 4 months inbetween surgeries to recover before they can go in again. That means we have two months for God to heal Dane.
After asking some friends to be praying, someone asked if the doctor has put him on steroids. The answer was no, but I thought it was a great idea. If the sinus' are inflamed and the swelling is covering the drain holes, perhaps some steroids with decrease the inflammation and allow the drain holes to reopen and give Dane some relief. I called Dr. Harmon's office and left a note asking his opinion.
I found out yesterday that the nurse had called me back on my cell phone, which was missing for a week and I finally found in the ashtray of the van, and told me that Dr. Harmon had agreed that we should try steroids and had phoned them into a nearby pharmacy. Meanwhile, Dane's head hurts so badly that he's home from school today trying to rest.
I've got to get that prescription for steroids filled today. He's almost done with the antibiotics and still feels crummy. When he first heard the news about the possibility of surgery, he got very shaken and was really mean for a couple of days as he dealt with it. This morning, he asked me to call Dr. Harmon. I asked him if he wanted to have more surgery.
"Mommy, if another operation will take away this pain, it's worth it," he said. It like to have broken my heart.
Please pray for my little boy. He's only nine and is suffering - not as badly as some children with liver disease or other terrible illnesses, but he's MINE and I feel his pain. And he's felt bad for such a long time and been through so much to feel better, with no improvement.
Pray that the steroids do the trick and his sinus' are able to drain and stay cleared up. Pray for an end to his headaches and stomach pain. And pray for grace for this boy to handle suffering and understand it from the eternal perspective.
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