Grateful for Boston

In October

I was returning from grocery shopping

and my hands were full of bags

So my son, Carter, ran up to the door to open it for me

And when I looked at him to say "thanks" I was kind of freaked out.

He had a growth on his neck.

It was like a second Adam's apple but higher up.

When I questioned him about it he told me that he'd had it for a couple of days

(How did I miss that?)

That day, my brother, Dion was supposed to fly into Boston to visit us

so in order to get him at the airport we took Carter to Mass General's emergency room

(right by the airport...how handy!)

As soon as the doctors saw his neck, they knew what it was

and it required surgery.

Which, strangely enough, was kind of good news

because up to this point the child was seriously annoyed that we'd taken him to the ER at all.

So, to hear that it was something real was good info, in a way.

We were referred to a Pediatric ENT at Mass Eye and Ear.

We have some experience working with Mass Eye and Ear because that's where the specialists came from when Frank's eye freaked out during his Leukemia treatment.

Frank picked up my brother from the airport and instead of going out to eat or doing something fun as originally planned, we brought him to the ER.

haha

But he did get a little tour of Frank's old stomping grounds on Lunder 10.

So that's something...

_____

He had the surgery this week, on Monday.

It went really smoothly and he is recovering amazingly well.

Here he is before surgery...not nervous at all.

They took out a big chunk of tissue from his neck

and hopefully the growth will not return.

The view from his room...not bad!

Post-op. Playing games and not in need of pain meds!

I'm so grateful to live near these amazing medical facilities!