My Little Man has a What?

A HERNIA! Yes.

A couple times in the last week, we felt a lump and noticed a bluish swelling in his you-know-whats (the beans, not the frank). After a pediatrician visit and surgical consult today (plus a couple frantic calls last night, including to the after hours line) we are scheduled to have our sweet little baby's privates operated on to fix his hydrocele hernia on Feb. 22.

Inguinal hernias form as a direct consequence of normal events in fetal development. At about 12 to 14 weeks of gestation, the gonads (testicles or ovaries) are formed near the kidneys. They gradually descend through the abdomen as the baby develops. If the baby is a boy, the testicles pass through an opening low in the abdomen and into the scrotum ... In about 5 % of children in the United States, this opening does not close properly. This happens more commonly in boys than in girls ... The failure of this opening to close potentially allows the contents of the abdomen to travel down into the scrotum (in a boy) or the labia (in a girl). The contents of the abdomen include the intestines, the ovaries, and the clear fluid in which the intestines normally float. If the scrotum or labia are found to contain intestines or an ovary, this is termed an inguinal hernia. If they contain only fluid, this is a hydrocele. The difference between the two is usually just the size of the opening; the basic anatomy is the same in both cases.

Lovely! I know!! Aren't you glad I shared?

This is not an emergency, but everything I'm reading backs up the doctors' advice to fix it now. Left untreated, it could be fine for years, but could eventually become a full inguinal hernia - where the intestines push through - and then eventually become strangulated, where the intestines actually get trapped, and the blood supply is cut off. Apparently in adults they take their chances sometimes and avoid surgery, but with kids, because their organs are small, there's a greater chance that strangulation occuring.

He's not in pain - thank goodness - but the lump sure does look painful.

I hate that I didn't get to meet the surgeon today (it's at St. John's) but Mike liked him. It's 45 minutes outpatient surgery, but full anesthesia, which unnerves me. The doctor's saying it's not risky, and that the trauma of holding kids down and using a local is far worse. Apparently this is like, the most common surgery for kids. Matthew's uncle Scott had one as a kid and so might his little son, Matthew's cousin Danny - literally might be having surgery for the same thing next month, we just learned.

So this is all reassuring. But also seems odd that they can cut into my little son, and put him down, and bring him out of it, all in forty-five minutes. I almost want to tell them to take their time.

The cherry on top: while at the doctor's, we had her recheck his nagging cough ... to learn he's got his first ear infection.

IT HAS BEEN QUITE A WEEK AND IT'S ONLY WEDNESDAY, PEOPLE.