Mairin's Cyst

Mairin started growing a cyst on her nose at the end of June/beginning of July.  So it's been about six months of growth at this point.  We started at the pediatrician who prescribed an antibiotic ointment.  When that didn't do the trick, and it continued to grow, we moved onto the dermatologist back in August.  At that point, Dr. Lingham couldn't treat it as it looked to be sitting under the skin and like it needed to be treated surgically by plastics.  It was 4mm the last time we saw our dermatology and I scheduled a follow up to check it's progress/size for the beginning of December.

In the interim, it looked to be growing and I got nervous that if it continued to grow that her scar would also continue to have to be bigger and bigger so I proactively schedule a consult with a pediatric plastic surgeon.  He was on the same page as dermatology in that it needs to be removed.  However, the scary part is that he was talking about a half inch incision across her face.  It wasn't the news we wanted to hear but we also didn't want to have it get any larger so we scheduled a surgery date for mid-December.  

Right after Halloween, we noticed that it was starting to look like it was coming to a head with a white top.  I took her to a second dermatologist to get another option and she was able to "pop" it a bit and get some puss out.  She also gave us some samples of an acne med and gave us the advice to sit on the surgery for the time being and see if the acne meds help.  I also visited another plastic surgeon during this time and he recommended surgically removing it but that he could do with with a much smaller incision.  SO many opinions and varying strategies on how to deal with it, my head was swimming.

We still had a surgery date on the calendar for December 12th and were in the mindset that it needed to come out one way or another and better to do it while she's young and it hasn't gotten too big.  She still had one last dermatology appointment four days prior to her surgery to follow up from August with Dr. Lingham.  When I took her in for that appointment, Dr. Lingham found that the cyst had shrunk in size down to 2.5 mm and still had the look of a white head on the top of it.  She wanted to try and drain it in office and hold off on surgery to see how it heals.  I was more than okay with this approach even though Mairin was not happy about the lidocaine injection and the rest of the process, it was worth a little trauma if we can avoid surgery and a big scar.  So that's what we did.  She drained it, it's still red (but flat) and we are holding our breaths and saying our prayers that the sac does not refill below the surface.  So not completely out of the woods but we are hopeful and are breathing a little easier this month knowing that we can avoid surgery at the moment.

Back in early November.

Numbing before the injection. 

                       

The next morning.

It's still hard for me to tell when I look at it since it's still read and looks like it's still there.  However, when I rub her nose, I don't feel a bump anymore.  I just want it to go away for her and heal nicely.

December 14th....