PYOGENIC GRANULOMA TREATMENT IN A TODDLER

Warning: this post contains graphic images of pyogenic granuloma treatment in a toddler.

Pyogenic granuloma treatment in a toddler

My one year old son had, what looked like a cherry mole, appear next to his eye one day. Right underneath is tear duct. A little bit of fear set in right away, but I put it aside and decided to just keep an eye on it.

Well, while I was keeping an eye on it, this ‘mole’ kept growing. And bleeding. Numerous times a day. Now, I am pretty sure it kept bleeding because my son kept picking at it. This thing bled though! There was one time it started bleeding in the car so I couldn’t keep wiping the blood up because I was driving. By the time we got home, it looked like my son had been severely beaten because he was covered in blood.

I called my primary doctor and she told me I should see a dermatologist. So, I got an appointment made with a dermatologist, except they couldn’t get me in for a few weeks! So, a few more weeks go by and I’m dealing with this bleeding a few times a day, everyday.

Finally, the day came. My husband came home from work to watch our other kids and I was able to head to my appointment. I get there and go to check in. THEY HAVE NO APPOINTMENT SCHEDULED FOR HIM THAT DAY! In fact, the dermatologist wasn’t even there that day. They also had my son’s birthday on there wrong. Nothing was matched up. So, I left and called every dermatologist in that town to see if anyone had any openings that afternoon. Nobody did. So, I called another dermatologist in a town an hour and a half away and got in for the following week.

Appointment time

Finally, again. We head out for our next appointment. This appointment took less than 15 minutes. The dermatologist looked at it and told me she is pretty confident it is pyogenic granuloma. Normally, not a big deal. However, because of the location of it and his age, the pyogenic granuloma treatment in a toddler would need to be a little different. She referred me to a surgeon.

So, the following week we were able to get into a consult with a surgeon. He also agreed that it looked like pyogenic granuloma. Since he is so young and it is right by his eye, surgery would be the best route for removal because they do not go away on it’s own. The surgeon told us that my son probably had a scratch and his body “over-healed” it. He said that when you get a cut, it will typically get a little pink around the edges. Well what happened here, the body overworked too much causing the blood vessels to expand too much. We had the consult on a Thursday and they could get us in for surgery on the following Thursday. First though, my son had to have a covid test on Monday.

That Monday morning, I brought my son in for his covid test. We were literally in the building less than one minute, but I hated it. So did he. Having to hold his head while they shoved something up his nose made me want to punch the nurse as hard as I could, repeatedly. But, we made it through and left.

Surgery Day

My son could have his last meal at 11:00pm and his last drink of water at 4:00am. We pulled up to the hospital at 8:30am.

The first thing we did was check in and they brought us up into a room that reminded me of the rooms on the movie Zootopia. Have you seen that movie? They keep all the “savage” animals in glass rooms and it is exactly how these rooms were. Except there was no toilet in my room. We sat there for about an hour before the doctor came in and talked to us. He told me the pyogenic granuloma looked like it had gotten smaller. It had. I had been praying so hard that God would take this away and we wouldn’t have to go through with the surgery. The doctor told me the actual procedure would take 20-30 minutes.

After that, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me some questions. She walked me through what was going to happen and what to expect. It would take about 20 minutes after surgery to wake him up.

Finally, around 10:00am, they came and got my son to bring him back for pyogenic granuloma treatment in a toddler, which obviously, requires surgery. The nurses tried to put him in a wagon, but he was screaming, so one of the nurses sat in a wheelchair and held him while the other nurse pushed. My son was screaming and crying the whole way down the hallway.

After surgery

About 45 minutes go by and the doctor came back in. He told me that everything looked great and looked exactly like pyogenic granuloma. They took it out and then put dissolvable stitches under the skin, pulled the skin together and put more dissolvable stitches on top. The stitches would be dissolved in ten days. The doctor told me they were working on getting the breathing tubes out and I should be seeing my son soon.

Another 10-15 minutes go by and the door to my room opens. The nurse is holding my son in a wheelchair. I get up and he sees me and starts crying. I got him into my arms and cuddled him on the chair while he cried for about 5 minutes. Then he fell asleep. He slept for about 90 minutes.

The nurse came back in and pulled out his IV tubes and checked his blood pressure. He slept through that but woke up afterwards. The nurse asked him if he would like a popsicle and he said yes.

After the popsicle, we were able to get him dressed. Then, we headed downstairs to their pharmacy and picked up antibiotics for him. He was signing to me that he was hungry, so I bought him a ham and cheese sandwich from a little shop they had. That sandwich disappeared before we were even out of the hospital parking lot.

Leaving the hospital

My son was telling me he was still hungry so we went and got some more food. He ate his meal and half of mine. We listened to a few of his favorite songs and then he fell asleep and slept the rest of the way home, which awas about an hour.

When we got home, he was very relaxed. He cuddled with his daddy for awhile. However, by the next day, my toddler was back to normal.

1 day post surgery pyogenic granuloma — 1 day post surgery