First scary

Reading Brandt's mind

Our visit to the doctor on Tuesday was both to give Brandt the ol' once-over, but also to get a little bruise on the side of his nose, right next to his eye looked at. I thought he'd punched himself in the eye (he's punched me in the eye and he's strong!), but the "bruise" hasn't gone away for a month. The doctor called it a Hemangioma and it doesn't sound like that big a deal, but we were referred to a dermatologist and for an ultrasound. The ultrasound is to make sure the Hemangioma isn't very vascular and too close to important eye stuff, in which case he would probably get a little steroid shot.

Enough already!

The woman who called to confirm today's ultrasound appointment called it an encephalogram, but that sounds scarier so we're going to keep referring to it as ultrasound. The diagnostic center was at Sunrise Hospital, where we've been once with a demonstration, and speaking of which--Anne finally got her placenta back yesterday! The facility was very mellow (no screaming kids) and the technician was sweet to Brandt. Brandt was a very willing little patient, until near the end when he got impatient. Even with the crying at the end, the tech said Brandt was a wonderful patient. He also said, "I usually use the goop to style their hair in an interesting 'do, but..." Poor bald Brandt! I told the tech about the antenna, but he didn't seem impressed. In a sense we were here just in the nick of time. The ultrasound is taken through the fontanel (soft spot) and Brandt's is almost closed up already. So we can start dropping stuff on his head soon! ;)

Now for the frustrating part: we got the results later in the day: "Everything looked great. However, that doesn't rule everything out so he'll get an MRI next Friday." Grr. I had assumed good results meant the end of this. And the MRI won't be nearly as easy--Brandt can't eat for four hours beforehand, plus I'm supposed to keep him awake all morning so he's ready to snooze once we get there. Talk about a recipe for a grumpy baby! I think many people wouldn't bother with any of this testing, but it's hard not to think "better safe than sorry" even knowing that the odds of this Hemangioma being dangerous are extremely low.