December Daily 10

This story is not finished, and depending on the outcome it may get moved to another day, or possibly removed. I'm not even sure now is a good time to tell it at all, but writing is therapeutic for me and so I'll go ahead and let the words soften my lingering fears. 

On Monday (maybe, time has lost meaning while being at home on maternity leave), I noticed a swelling on Corwyn's neck. It is kind of behind the ear and at first I thought it might be a lymph node or possibly just the muscle being tensed because his head was to the side. I put him in his swing so his head was straight and I couldn't really see any protrusion, he didn't have a fever, he didn't seem to be bothered when I touched it or moved his head from side to side, and he didn't have any trouble breathing, SO I put my paranoia aside and decided to see if it was still there the next day and if Gavin noticed it (which would be confirmation that I wasn't being overly paranoid mom). 

It was still there Tuesday and Wednesday. Gavin didn't notice it until I pointed it out, but didn't think I was imagining anything. We called the doctor on Thursday and got an appointment for Friday. 

Dr. Stacy examined him and said she thought it was a hematoma on the neck muscle and since it wasn't bothering him that it was probably harmless - BUT that she wanted to schedule a CT scan to eliminate anything else before we did anything else. So Tuesday next week my 4 week old baby will get at CT scan. )-:

Of course, google searches on hematomas just made me paranoid that I had somehow yanked his head around causing trauma to the muscle... etc etc etc. Until I found pseudotumor of infancy. Basically the idea is that he was crooked in the uterus and his neck muscle needs to stretch out a bit.  Here's a good link:

http://the-medical-dictionary.com/torticollis_article_7.htm

This sounds EXACTLY like what is going on with Corwyn and is more common in frank breech babies (which he was). It typically has no lingering side effects if treated with mild physical therapy before the age of 1. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Tuesday will not reveal any unexpected results, but I'm very optimistic (and thankful that I didn't give up my internet search before I found this).

Next hurdle - testing for hip dysplasia. Sigh.

But yes, he's totally worth the worry and trouble. (-: