We saw Dr. Johnson yesterday for Nat's surgical follow up. We should have seen him last Thursday but with Dad out of town for his Jeopardy audition there was no way in the world I was going to get a pathology report on my own.
As we learned the day of the surgery this was not a dermoid cyst as would have been the most likely. Instead she had an inflamed PILOMATRIXOMA. Wow! What the hell is that?
Turns out that a pilomatrixoma is a slow-growing, hard mass found under the skin. They're most common on the face and neck, in children under age 10 and twice as common in females than in males. We've been told that they do not grow back, nor do they spread. While not rare they are uncommon and although Dr. Johnson is probably 50 years old he has seen three of these and they've all been in the last 18 months.
Now check this out, I asked for a copy of the pathology report and the staff's response? "Oh here's hon' take two. That way you can give one to the pediatrician and keep one for yourself". Aahhh, how refreshing. Empowering the patient and their family, yippee!
Between having worked in a hospital in the past and all of the medical fun I've been through a pathology report, while dense is usually readable. "Histological sections shows portions of pilomatrixoma comprised of aggregates of"ghost cells". "
"GHOST CELLS" My four year old daughter has had a tumor removed from her eyelid and it contains GHOST CELLS? Are you freaking kidding me?
Okay, thanks to the web I now know that a "ghost cell" is a cell with a shadow of where a nucleus has been in the past. There are a variety of reasons that the nucleus is no longer present, none of which are interesting to any of you.
So we go back in June for one more look to make sure that everything is thoroughly healed. In the meantime if Nat begins levitating or anything else you know who I'm gonna call, Ghostbusters!
As we learned the day of the surgery this was not a dermoid cyst as would have been the most likely. Instead she had an inflamed PILOMATRIXOMA. Wow! What the hell is that?
Turns out that a pilomatrixoma is a slow-growing, hard mass found under the skin. They're most common on the face and neck, in children under age 10 and twice as common in females than in males. We've been told that they do not grow back, nor do they spread. While not rare they are uncommon and although Dr. Johnson is probably 50 years old he has seen three of these and they've all been in the last 18 months.
Now check this out, I asked for a copy of the pathology report and the staff's response? "Oh here's hon' take two. That way you can give one to the pediatrician and keep one for yourself". Aahhh, how refreshing. Empowering the patient and their family, yippee!
Between having worked in a hospital in the past and all of the medical fun I've been through a pathology report, while dense is usually readable. "Histological sections shows portions of pilomatrixoma comprised of aggregates of"ghost cells". "
"GHOST CELLS" My four year old daughter has had a tumor removed from her eyelid and it contains GHOST CELLS? Are you freaking kidding me?
Okay, thanks to the web I now know that a "ghost cell" is a cell with a shadow of where a nucleus has been in the past. There are a variety of reasons that the nucleus is no longer present, none of which are interesting to any of you.
So we go back in June for one more look to make sure that everything is thoroughly healed. In the meantime if Nat begins levitating or anything else you know who I'm gonna call, Ghostbusters!