So TheBoy has this bump on the back of his head, a right sizable one that didn't get there by hitting it or falling or the other normal ways he gets the rest of his bumps. I noticed it a couple of days ago while pulling him close to hug him and rubbing the back of his head, and he yelped at me. He has a summer buzz cut, so we could see it wasn't black and blue or anything, but it obviously was hurting him, so "we" (read BigDaddyFish) decided to keep an eye on it, even though my first instict is to run screaming to the pediatrician that my son clearly has a brain tumor and to FIX IT RIGHT NOW! I thought some of the pain was due to his tendency to be a drama queen (yes, I know he's a boy, and yes, drama queen is what fits), so once he was asleep I went and rubbed the bump again, and he twitched and grimaced in his sleep, so I know it was real hurt rather than attention gathering hurt. I showed it to a couple of other mom friends, and they seemed concerned, too, so when he fell this morning and bumped and screamed like he was being tortured, off to the ped we went.
We probably have the best pediatricians in the whole county, if not larger region; they've been in the Washingtonian top docs issues and voted top docs in america like twenty years in a row. The doctor we saw was one of the older ones in the practice, one who has kids older than me and has been practicing longer than that. He rubbed the boy's head, asked about obvious neurological stuff, and poked around. Then he asked about bug bites. We hadn't seen any and told him so, but we do live in the woods, so it is possible we got one and didn't know it. He said they see this frequently in the summer, it is just a swollen occipital lymph node, probably swollen up due to a bug bite not noticed, and it will go away on its own. Good to know, huh?
He also commented on the size of our family, with the 3 kids and one on the way, that he doesn't usually see larger families much anymore. That is funny to me, because I know he has like 5 kids and bunches of grandkids, but then I thought about it some more. In my generation, he's right. We are not the norm, and we are starting to get treated accordingly. I have a friend who has 7 kids who just lets the comments roll right off her back, but they bug me a bit. One day I'll be able to let them go, but for now, I have to work on not letting the judgements of others cause me to judge myself.
What is it about being a mom that makes us automatically think "tumor"? I guess it just comes with the territory, huh?
Sorry about the Strep. That totally blows.
Posted by: Jenny | June 14, 2006 at 04:36 PM