Thanks for your great response, Diane! I really appreciate your time and research. Since it had been a couple of days since I asked my question, I was afraid you all had forgotten about me.
Today we consulted with a pediatric vascular surgeon and he had a bit of a different take from some of your info above. We went to see Dr. Stuart Lacey, who is an amazing surgeon. You can read and see photos from a surgery he performed last year to separate conjoined twins here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/16/earlyshow/health/main4727080.shtml
In any case, he definitely knows his stuff, and we had a very informative meeting with him. He believes that my son most likely will not need surgery, which is a huge relief. He does want to do some additional testing to confirm this, though. In the meantime, he's referring us to the Vascular Malformation Clinic located within Phoenix Children's Hospital. Apparently, vein malformations like my son's are very common -- so much so that there's a need for an entire clinic dedicated to this condition at PCH. And I'd never heard of this before. According to Dr. Lacey, this is simply a vascular anomaly that my son was born with. There was no cause, like an injury or anything. He just has a malformed vein in his leg. He probably won't have a problem with this anywhere else in his body. Apparently there are several different treatment options that we'll learn about once we visit the clinic and meet with one of the specialists there. Dr. Lacey said that most likely the scenario will be that we'll either not have to do anything at all to treat the vein, or we'll choose to explore the various treatment options with the clinic.
Obviously, this is such a relief. Any kind of surgery sounds scary to me! I'm really hoping that we can find some kind of treatment to make the lump go away because it is definitely noticeable and kind of weird to think that it's a vein sack filled with blood. Although Dr. Lacey said that it won't cause any kind of a threat to my son, and that he can do all the sports and activities he wants to, it still seems like it would be a nuisance, especially if it continues to grow.
Thanks again for your response. If you have any other thoughts or come across any treatment options, please let me know!
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Thanks for your great response, Diane! I really appreciate your time and research. Since it had been a couple of days since I asked my question, I was afraid you all had forgotten about me.
Today we consulted with a pediatric vascular surgeon and he had a bit of a different take from some of your info above. We went to see Dr. Stuart Lacey, who is an amazing surgeon. You can read and see photos from a surgery he performed last year to separate conjoined twins here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/16/earlyshow/health/main4727080.shtml
In any case, he definitely knows his stuff, and we had a very informative meeting with him. He believes that my son most likely will not need surgery, which is a huge relief. He does want to do some additional testing to confirm this, though. In the meantime, he's referring us to the Vascular Malformation Clinic located within Phoenix Children's Hospital. Apparently, vein malformations like my son's are very common -- so much so that there's a need for an entire clinic dedicated to this condition at PCH. And I'd never heard of this before. According to Dr. Lacey, this is simply a vascular anomaly that my son was born with. There was no cause, like an injury or anything. He just has a malformed vein in his leg. He probably won't have a problem with this anywhere else in his body. Apparently there are several different treatment options that we'll learn about once we visit the clinic and meet with one of the specialists there. Dr. Lacey said that most likely the scenario will be that we'll either not have to do anything at all to treat the vein, or we'll choose to explore the various treatment options with the clinic.
Obviously, this is such a relief. Any kind of surgery sounds scary to me! I'm really hoping that we can find some kind of treatment to make the lump go away because it is definitely noticeable and kind of weird to think that it's a vein sack filled with blood. Although Dr. Lacey said that it won't cause any kind of a threat to my son, and that he can do all the sports and activities he wants to, it still seems like it would be a nuisance, especially if it continues to grow.
Thanks again for your response. If you have any other thoughts or come across any treatment options, please let me know!
January 7, 2010 - 9:58pmThis Comment
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